Break from the Grind January 4, 2018

A Little Friday File Fun

And now it's time for FRIDAY FILES!
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In Stuart, Florida, a man on his lunch break was “dying to eat some clams.” The man told TCPalm he was disappointed that the restaurant wanted to charge him $12 for a plate of tiny clams that had “nothing in the shell.” When restaurant staff refused to give the man a refund, he allegedly called 911 hoping an officer would help resolve the issue. The officer told him to call the non-emergency number. A short time later, Agosto called back griping that nobody was answering the non-emergency line and that he still needed an officer to arrive on the scene. An officer did show up at the restaurant, but just to serve the man with a notice to appear in court for one count of misuse of the 911 system.

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In Alberta, Canada, a divorcing couple have finally resolved their custody battle—over Edmonton Oilers hockey season tickets. The wife filed for joint custody of the tickets and won. “The parties shall alternate choices for game tickets with the defendant choosing first the game for which he wants tickets, the plaintiff choosing second for her game, and the parties alternating choices thereafter until all regular season tickets have been assigned,” a court justice ruled, according to CTV News.

In Montreal, Canada, a man was driving and singing along to the song “Gonna Make You Sweat,” a 1990 dance hit by C+C Music Factory that includes the command, “Everybody dance now!” He was pulled over by police, and officers asked him if he screamed loudly, the Canadian Broadcasting Company reported. The man explained he was just singing along to his favorite song. After police checked the man’s license and registration, they came back with a traffic ticket fining him $149 Canadian dollars (or $117) for screaming in his car. The man plans to contest the ticket as soon as a court date is scheduled, which could take up to a year.

In Manhattan, New York City, a mistake changed a woman’s life. She asked a store clerk for a $1 New York Lottery scratch-off ticket, but instead he handed her a $10 Set For Life ticket. The woman decided to just go ahead and buy it, and later told the lottery she used it for a bookmark for a couple of weeks before scratching it. But, when she did, she discovered she was the winner of $5 million to be distributed over 20 years, plus annual net sums of $172,068 after that for the rest of her life.
The Google Year in Search 2017

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Wonder from whom this two-year-old learned her fussing skills?

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Poor little fella was just trying to be helpful, feeding the dog.

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Compliance January 4, 2018

DOL Makes Proposal to Expand Access to Small Business Health Plans

Modifying the definition of employer for these plans will help employers reduce health benefit administrative costs through economies of scale, the Department of Labor says.

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The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to expand the opportunity to offer employment-based health insurance to small businesses through Small Business Health Plans, also known as Association Health Plans.

The regulation would modify the definition of “employer,” in part, by creating a more flexible “commonality of interest” test for the employer members than the DOL had adopted in sub-regulatory interpretive rulings under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) section 3(5).

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The rule would:

  • Allow employers to form a Small Business Health Plan on the basis of geography or industry. A plan could serve employers in a state, city, county, or a multi-state metro area, or it could serve all the businesses in a particular industry nationwide; and
  • Allow sole proprietors to join Small Business Health Plans, clearing a path to access health insurance for the millions of uninsured Americans who are sole proprietors or the family of sole proprietors.

The DOL says these improvements stand to open health insurance coverage for millions of Americans and their families by making it more affordable for thousands of small businesses and sole proprietors. By joining together, employers may reduce administrative costs through economies of scale, strengthen their bargaining position to obtain more favorable deals, enhance their ability to self-insure, and offer a wider array of insurance options.

The agency notes that Small Business Health Plans (Association Health Plans) cannot charge individuals higher premiums based on health factors or refuse to admit employees to a plan because of health factors. The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration will closely monitor these plans to protect consumers.

The NPRM will be published in the Federal Register on January 5, and be available for public comment for 60 days. Text of the NPRM is here.

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