News & Insights

Bukaty Companies and GM Peters, a P&C agency located in Kansas City, Missouri, completed a new partnership June 1. GM Peters, established in 1915, provides risk management and property and casualty insurance services in the Kansas City area. Their staff of 24 consists of 6 sales consultants and 18...

Employers are scrambling to comply with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) decision to end I-9 verification flexibilities on July 31. Following a 30-day grace period, employers must conduct in-person I-9 documentation verification for remote employees that have been hired since...

Missouri Governor Mike Parson recently signed SB106 into law, which modifies an array of provisions regarding public health. Starting January 1, 2024, Missouri will require health insurance carriers to foot the bill for diagnostic breast imaging. The provision aims to combat breast cancer by...

Self-funded plan sponsors must the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fee each year. The collected fees help fund the organization, which conducts research to aid in better-informed health care choices.

On April 10, the President signed legislation effectively ending the national emergency, proclaimed in 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden Administration had previously announced its intent to end both the public health emergency and the national emergency on May 11, 2023. The national...

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are facing a spate of Congressional action and investigations as the nation struggles to contain rising pharmaceutical costs. A bipartisan senate committee recently passed the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act of 2023, and the Senate Finance Committee held...

Many provisions within the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), adopted in December 2022, are designed to bring greater cost transparency to the cost of medical care. A new CAA gag prohibition rule in effect today restricts health plans and carriers from entering into agreements with providers,...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)released updated guidance outlining the proper treatment of hearing disabilities in the workplace. Employers covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cannot ask job applicants if they have a hearing disability, and applicants have...

Each July 31, heath plans pay an IRS fee to support the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), a nonprofit research organization chartered by the Affordable Care Act to improve health care outcomes and experiences for patients. Self-funded plan sponsors pay the fee directly, while...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is expected to release a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in May to update the salary threshold for overtime eligibility. Currently, non-exempt employees earning a salary of less than $684 a week, or $35,568 annually, are entitled to overtime pay for hours worked in...