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The Affordable Care Act sets up a new arena of whistleblower protections for employees who complain that their company-provided health insurance doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.
On Friday, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published an interim final rule in the Federal Register that establishes procedures and time frames for handling retaliation complaints filed under Section 1558 of the Affordable Care Act.
For example, if an employer-sponsored health plan doesn’t provide an employee with no-cost contraceptives or sterilization – or any other “essential health benefit" -- that employee may complain without fear of retaliation.
Whistleblower complaints may also arise in cases where a large employer does not offer a health insurance plan that meets certain levels of affordability and minimum value. In those cases, the company may be penalized if any of its full-time employees receives a tax credit or subsidy through an Obamacare insurance exchange. That could create an incentive for an employer to fire or lay off an employee.
Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by jibeho
Are you suggesting that employers should be free to fire, lay off, demote, discipline, intimidate, threaten and reassign employees who complain about them?
Are you suggesting that people who are getting illegally cheated by their employers SHOULDN'T be protected from blowing the whistle on said employers?
What will this lead to? and who will enforce it?? The new IRS agents needed to implement Obamacare?
Results of the Investigation
If the evidence supports an employee’s claim of
retaliation and a settlement cannot be reached,
OSHA will issue an order requiring the employer
to, as appropriate, reinstate the employee, pay back
wages, restore benefits, and other possible relief to
make the employee whole.
OSHA’s findings and order become the final order
of the Secretary of Labor, unless they are appealed
within 30 days.
After OSHA issues its findings and order, either
party may request a full hearing before an
administrative law judge of the Department of
Labor.
The administrative law judge’s decision and order
may be appealed to the Department’s Administrative Review Board.
If a final agency order is not issued within 210 days
from the date the employee’s complaint is filed, or
within 90 days after the employee receives OSHA’s
findings, then the employee may file a complaint in
the appropriate United States district court, with a
copy provided to OSHA
Originally posted by CrisMajor
Free healthcare isn't free. Just saying.
Workers’ contributions to their health insurance premiums have grown by 180 percent since 1999. Earnings, meanwhile, have grown just a quarter as fast.
The average health insurance plan offered by a large company now costs $15,745.
That’s the bad news. But there’s also some good news buried in this report: Health insurance premiums rose by 4 percent between 2011 and 2012. That’s not nothing, but it’s a whole lot less than the double-digit premium increases that were common about a decade ago. In fact, since 2004, the Kaiser Family Foundation has not seen any double-digit increases at all. Just like national health expenditures, employer-based premiums are seeing a cost-growth slowdown
Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Were the hotlines, whistle blower options and rewards for fraud and bad conduct not already enough?
With the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.
The Congress declares it to be its purpose and policy, through the exercise of its powers to regulate commerce among the several States and with foreign nations and to provide for the general welfare, to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources --
29 USC 651
(1) by encouraging employers and employees in their efforts to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards at their places of employment, and to stimulate employers and employees to institute new and to perfect existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions;
(2) by providing that employers and employees have separate but dependent responsibilities and rights with respect to achieving safe and healthful working conditions;
OSHA Jurisdiction:
◾Covers private sector employers
◾Excludes self-employed, family farm workers, and government workers (except in state plan states)
◾Approves and monitors 27 State Plan states which cover private and public sector employees.
◾Assists Federal Agency Programs
OSHA Inspections:
◾Conducted without advance notice
◾On-site inspections, or Phone/Fax investigations
◾Highly-trained compliance officers
◾See Fact Sheet on OSHA Inspections [359 KB PDF*]
Inspection Priorities:
◾Imminent danger
◾Catastrophes
◾Worker complaints and referrals
◾Targeted inspections - high injury/illness rates, severe violators
◾Follow-up inspections
Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by Wrabbit2000
Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
Were the hotlines, whistle blower options and rewards for fraud and bad conduct not already enough?
Most laws passed contain information about penalties for breaking that law.edit on 2/25/2013 by Benevolent Heretic because: (no reason given)