I'm not sure how the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which zoomed through the Senate last night and is now on its way to the House for reconciliation, will benefit the law's namesake, but it sure must be sweet to pull one over the head of Supreme Court justices. Five of the latter ruled in 2007 that Ms. Ledbetter's claim for pay discrimination against Goodyear, though just, was filed beyond the statute of limitations and thus invalid.
Her friends in the Democratic party rushed to her aid with the aforementioned bill. It never got out of the Senate the past two years when the place had more Republicans and the bill faced a sure Bushian swat-back, but the times they are a-changin'. Now the Dems are within one vote of being filibuster proof, and indeed for this bill they invoked cloture (ending any filibuster) by the comfortable margin of 61-36. (Maine's Olympia Snowe, for one, is a Republican in name only.)
The eponymous law now mandates that the statute of limitations (180 or 300 days, depending) begins anew each time a paycheck is issued or, ambiguously, "when an individual is affected by application of a discriminatory compensation decision."
Though Ms. Ledbetter is now retired and not receiving paychecks, depending on how a judge might interpret "affected by," she could well be back in court looking for her lost wages (men in similar positions were paid more, basically). Goodyear should just write a check and end all the publicity that led to this new law in the first place, but we'll see.
Lilly Ledbetter and her legislation are now poised to enrich trial lawyers throughout the country (they being one of the two biggest donors, along with organized labor, to the Democrats and Barack Obama in the last election), while sending businesses into a funk and whetting the legal appetites of many a female employee. (One blog post I read predicted that this would lead to companies' hiring only, or mainly, men. Not sure that would cut it legally, though.)
So, to borrow an old Klingon saying, "Revenge is a dish best served with the force of law."
(Employers, I've found a convenient source for mastering all the discrimination and other laws and regulations you face. Get a copy of Personnel Concepts' Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance Program.)
Friday, January 23, 2009
Will Health IT Solve This Regulatory Mess?
I'm usually not a fan of the stuff in the Huffington Post since it's--let's just say--a bit past center politically, but in my ongoing research on HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), I came across a first-person account of how HIPAA and other medical regulations afftect the delivery of health care in America.
This was a real eye-opener.
The author, Deane Waldman, is a pediatric cardiologist. In his article, he recounts some regulatory horror stories that help explain why health care delivery is such a mess in the U.S.
Let me just cite a couple of incidents:
Because of mandates by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCOAH), Dr. Waldman must ask each patient if he or she smokes (and plans to quit) and whether he or she has suicidal thoughts. The irony here is that many of his patients are in diapers.
Another instance involved a letter he received mandating that he attend a training session on Part D of Medicare even though, again, his patients have nothing to do with Part D. At stake, should be not complete the training, was the accreditation of the entire hospital, or at the very least fines and/or sanctions.
Read "The Bane of My Existence: Come With Me to Work" for further horror stories.
Now, Dr. Waldman is one guy who can truly subscribe to my motto, "Get off my back."
This was a real eye-opener.
The author, Deane Waldman, is a pediatric cardiologist. In his article, he recounts some regulatory horror stories that help explain why health care delivery is such a mess in the U.S.
Let me just cite a couple of incidents:
Because of mandates by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCOAH), Dr. Waldman must ask each patient if he or she smokes (and plans to quit) and whether he or she has suicidal thoughts. The irony here is that many of his patients are in diapers.
Another instance involved a letter he received mandating that he attend a training session on Part D of Medicare even though, again, his patients have nothing to do with Part D. At stake, should be not complete the training, was the accreditation of the entire hospital, or at the very least fines and/or sanctions.
Read "The Bane of My Existence: Come With Me to Work" for further horror stories.
Now, Dr. Waldman is one guy who can truly subscribe to my motto, "Get off my back."
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Health IT Funds Included in Bailout Package
The latest version of the economic stimulus legislation includes 187 pages called the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health Act, or HITECH, with $20 billion in funding to implement a nationwide system of electronic health records (EHRs).
This is something that President Obama spoke of frequently during his campaign, and now it appears to be coming into fruition.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) envisions that, within a decade, some 90 percent of physicians and 70 percent of hospitals and other providers will become electrified (that word doesn't quite work, does it?) as a result of HITECH. In other words, they will be using electronic health records (EHRs).
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, comes into play here, but when HIPAA was written, no one was really envisioning a nationwide data base of health records available online. However, here it all comes.
The law also creates an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to oversee matters and enforce rules.
Finally, the law comes with a stick as well as a $20-billion carrot. At some point in the future, those who choose not to go electronic will get docked in their Medicare and Medicaid payments.
Ouch. That'll teach 'em.
This is something that President Obama spoke of frequently during his campaign, and now it appears to be coming into fruition.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) envisions that, within a decade, some 90 percent of physicians and 70 percent of hospitals and other providers will become electrified (that word doesn't quite work, does it?) as a result of HITECH. In other words, they will be using electronic health records (EHRs).
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, comes into play here, but when HIPAA was written, no one was really envisioning a nationwide data base of health records available online. However, here it all comes.
The law also creates an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to oversee matters and enforce rules.
Finally, the law comes with a stick as well as a $20-billion carrot. At some point in the future, those who choose not to go electronic will get docked in their Medicare and Medicaid payments.
Ouch. That'll teach 'em.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Bailout Blues: Tax Shelters and Big Bonu$e$
The Associated Press recently reported that 600 executives at the banks just bailed out by the U.S. government took in $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses and perks last year. That comes to about $2.6 million per exec, but we all know that not all execs are created equal.
Then came this news from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which searched publicly available data filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and determined that 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded corporations and 63 of the 100 largest federal contractors maintain subsidiaries in countries generally considered havens for avoiding taxes.
Prominent among these entities are Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and American International Group (AIG), bailout faves of Henry Paulsen. Citigroup alone has 427 tax haven subsidiaries.
The GAO made no determination as to whether these companies actually used their subsidiaries to avoid U.S. taxes, but we all know what the assumption is.
Then came this news from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which searched publicly available data filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and determined that 83 of the 100 largest publicly traded corporations and 63 of the 100 largest federal contractors maintain subsidiaries in countries generally considered havens for avoiding taxes.
Prominent among these entities are Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and American International Group (AIG), bailout faves of Henry Paulsen. Citigroup alone has 427 tax haven subsidiaries.
The GAO made no determination as to whether these companies actually used their subsidiaries to avoid U.S. taxes, but we all know what the assumption is.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Many Miss Out on Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment insurance was commenced in 1935 as a bridge between jobs, but this recession seems to be testing the limits of the system and revealing some inherent cracks.
First, not all states run their unemployment programs the same or use the same eligibility standards. The result of this disparity nationwide is that some 37 percent of those laid off fail to qualify for unemployment insurance.
This hits the lowest paid the hardest since they are twice as likely to be laid off while only one third of them ends up receiving unemployment checks.
Problems with the system began in 1982 when the federal government started demanding interest payments on funds borrowed to cover state unemployment insurance needs. In 1986, unemployment income started being taxed while states were suddenly required to eliminate unemployment payments from those receiving pensions or Social Security even though they otherwise qualified.
Curiously, even though the working world is now computerized, the unemployment system still goes by pre-computer standards and doesn't recognize a worker's last quarter of earnings. So, for those laid off in December 2008, no wages from Oct. 1 on counted in the computation.
Say you were a recent college graduate who started working in June 2008. If you were laid off in December, only the wages and work weeks from June through September would count. This would disqualify you in many states.
Fear not as the Obamites have a handy piece of legislation to reintroduce called the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act. This act never made it out of the Senate the first time, even though Barack Obama was a sponsor, but chances are now good for its approval.
If enacted, the law would provide states with $7 billion to cover another 500,000 workers (works out to $14,000 per). An additional $500 million would be passed along to cover administrative expenses.
I'm not sure how this act modernizes unemployment insurance, but maybe there's more language in there to patch up those cracks. Otherwise, it's just a one-time payment.
First, not all states run their unemployment programs the same or use the same eligibility standards. The result of this disparity nationwide is that some 37 percent of those laid off fail to qualify for unemployment insurance.
This hits the lowest paid the hardest since they are twice as likely to be laid off while only one third of them ends up receiving unemployment checks.
Problems with the system began in 1982 when the federal government started demanding interest payments on funds borrowed to cover state unemployment insurance needs. In 1986, unemployment income started being taxed while states were suddenly required to eliminate unemployment payments from those receiving pensions or Social Security even though they otherwise qualified.
Curiously, even though the working world is now computerized, the unemployment system still goes by pre-computer standards and doesn't recognize a worker's last quarter of earnings. So, for those laid off in December 2008, no wages from Oct. 1 on counted in the computation.
Say you were a recent college graduate who started working in June 2008. If you were laid off in December, only the wages and work weeks from June through September would count. This would disqualify you in many states.
Fear not as the Obamites have a handy piece of legislation to reintroduce called the Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act. This act never made it out of the Senate the first time, even though Barack Obama was a sponsor, but chances are now good for its approval.
If enacted, the law would provide states with $7 billion to cover another 500,000 workers (works out to $14,000 per). An additional $500 million would be passed along to cover administrative expenses.
I'm not sure how this act modernizes unemployment insurance, but maybe there's more language in there to patch up those cracks. Otherwise, it's just a one-time payment.
Monday, January 19, 2009
USCIS a Paper-Jammed Nightmare, Soon to Be Our Big Brother Thanks to a Bushian Bailout
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a $2.6-billion-a-year agency. It is also the paper-jammed and -backlogged agency formerly known as the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service).
Ask anybody who's dealt with the agency in either incarnation and you'll hear horror stories of standing in blocks-long lines before dawn and spending the whole day waiting for your name to be called. Then a year or two later, you might hear something--if you're lucky.
Someone caught on to the nightmare known as the INS in 1999 and began a modernization process, but they forgot to fund it. Then came 9/11, then the merger into DHS, and then more lack of funds.
Finally, late in 2008 IBM was chosen to take the whole process online in a $500-million, long-overdue project. Considering that it costs the USCIS $100 million a year just to ship and store the huge files it creates for each immigrant, it seems that they coulda and shoulda found the $500 million many long years ago. In five years of operation or so, the computerization will pay for itself.
The goal is to process each applicant in six months' time, down from the 18 months to three years that it typically takes, using electronic applications and database filing.
The new system will allow government agencies, from the Border Patrol to the FBI to the Labor Department, to access immigration records faster and more accurately. In combination with initiatives to link digital fingerprint scans to unique identification numbers, it would create a lifelong digital record for applicants. It also would eliminate the need for time- and labor-intensive filing and refiling of paper forms, which are stored at 200 locations in 70 million manila file folders. (Big Brother has finally arrived!)
To its credit, the USCIS did manage to put its appointments system online a few years back (for another cool $500 mil), and those lines that snaked around several city blocks have now been reduced. Queues still exist, but people show up at appointed times rather than lining up for a limited number of seats each morning. That part is now more manageable, but the processing time is still far too lengthy.
The whole system is so dysfunctional that immigrants who get tired of the wait (or whose documents are simply lost or misplaced, rendering them a non-person) can turn to the court of last resort called (funnily) OIL, Office of Immigrant Litigation, which employs 250 lawyers and costs the government another $20 or more million a year to operate.
Ask anybody who's dealt with the agency in either incarnation and you'll hear horror stories of standing in blocks-long lines before dawn and spending the whole day waiting for your name to be called. Then a year or two later, you might hear something--if you're lucky.
Someone caught on to the nightmare known as the INS in 1999 and began a modernization process, but they forgot to fund it. Then came 9/11, then the merger into DHS, and then more lack of funds.
Finally, late in 2008 IBM was chosen to take the whole process online in a $500-million, long-overdue project. Considering that it costs the USCIS $100 million a year just to ship and store the huge files it creates for each immigrant, it seems that they coulda and shoulda found the $500 million many long years ago. In five years of operation or so, the computerization will pay for itself.
The goal is to process each applicant in six months' time, down from the 18 months to three years that it typically takes, using electronic applications and database filing.
The new system will allow government agencies, from the Border Patrol to the FBI to the Labor Department, to access immigration records faster and more accurately. In combination with initiatives to link digital fingerprint scans to unique identification numbers, it would create a lifelong digital record for applicants. It also would eliminate the need for time- and labor-intensive filing and refiling of paper forms, which are stored at 200 locations in 70 million manila file folders. (Big Brother has finally arrived!)
To its credit, the USCIS did manage to put its appointments system online a few years back (for another cool $500 mil), and those lines that snaked around several city blocks have now been reduced. Queues still exist, but people show up at appointed times rather than lining up for a limited number of seats each morning. That part is now more manageable, but the processing time is still far too lengthy.
The whole system is so dysfunctional that immigrants who get tired of the wait (or whose documents are simply lost or misplaced, rendering them a non-person) can turn to the court of last resort called (funnily) OIL, Office of Immigrant Litigation, which employs 250 lawyers and costs the government another $20 or more million a year to operate.
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