In an effort to cope with the void left by the federal government’s failure to curb illegal immigration, Tennessee has joined the ranks of 15 other states that have enacted “get tough” immigration-related legislation aimed at stricter enforcement of immigration laws within their state borders by requiring public and private employers to enroll and participate in the E-Verify program to verify the employment eligibility of newly hired employees ...
On March 1, Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS) disclosed that the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by the company in connection with its gaming operations in Macau ...
As we stated in our bulletin last week, on March 31st, the federal government outlined proposed actions relating to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a key component of the healthcare reform legislation (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) enacted in March 2010. In this bulletin, we provide some additional information regarding each of the March 31st releases ...
The "say-on-pay" rules giving stockholders a voice in executive compensation are now in place for publicly traded companies. The rules establish new proxy requirements applicable to the 2011 proxy season, although for smaller reporting companies, implementation of certain of the rules has been deferred until 2013. A number of companies have already begun to report the results of their “say-on-pay” votes ...
*This article is the first in a three-part series regarding government worksite audits and inspections and what employers can do to mitigate risk and liability to their businesses.* January 2011Sending a clear message that there will be no abatement in the aggressive federal enforcement of U.S ...
As part of the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgery center payment system final rule for calendar year 2011 (the “Final Rule”), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued final regulations that implement the changes that were made to the whole hospital exception by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively, the “Acts
President Obama signed HR 4853, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the Act), into law on December 17, 2010. Some key estate and gift tax provisions of the Act are summarized below.Increase in Estate Tax Exemption Amount; Decrease in Maximum RateUnder the terms of the Act, the estate tax exemption amount for decedents dying between Jan. 1, 2011 and Dec ...
After decades of debate, US healthcare reform became a reality in 2010 when President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March. Yet public opinion remains sharply divided on the merits of this sweeping legislation, both in terms of its ability to address the problems of access to, and the rising cost of, healthcare services and in terms of the financial burden on the federal and state governments of implementing ACA ...
Providers of a advanced diagnostic imaging services, including physicians, who bill for the technical component must become accredited by a designated accreditation organization by Jan. 1, 2012 in order to be reimbursed by Medicare, according to a notice from CMS published in the Federal Register ...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published its proposal to strengthen the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for the main component of smog, ground level ozone. EPA proposed in the Federal Register on Jan. 19, 2010 to set the ozone standard between 60 and 70 parts per billion (ppb). In 2008, the Bush Administration set the standard at 75 ppb ...
As widely expected, President Obama signed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2010 (the Act), which continues and enhances the governmental subsidy of COBRA continuation coverage. The COBRA subsidy was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide assistance to employees, and their families, who were involuntarily terminated from employment. The subsidy originally applied to employees terminated between Sept. 1, 2008 and Dec ...
On Dec. 16, 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement reached with Credit Suisse AG to address prolonged and systematic violations of federal and state criminal law ...
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced an enforcement initiative targeting the pharmaceutical industry for investigations and prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA prohibits improper payments to foreign government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business and mandates that companies that issue securities take affirmative measures to prevent such payments ...
The Bush Administration and House leaders Democrat Nancy Pelosi and Republican John Boehner reached an agreement on January 24, 2008 regarding a stimulus package. This stimulus package includes tax relief targeted at both businesses and individuals. As discussed below, the Senate may well have additional individual and business provisions before legislation is passed ...
Savings and expected recoveries of $43 billion were reported by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in its Semiannual Report to Congress on December 14, 2007, for fiscal year 2007 (October 2006 – September 2007). This represents $2.18 billion in investigative recoveries, $1 ...
On Nov. 20, 2007, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officially published “Appendix A” of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) in the Federal Register. This comes as part of the DHS’s ongoing efforts to ensure the adequate security of chemical facilities in the United States. Appendix A, which is an addendum to 6 C.F.R. § 27, identifies over 300 chemicals perceived by the DHS to create a significant threat to human life or health if mishandled ...
