Technical Bulletin is a publication written by Gallagher Benefit Services, intended to provide more detailed information on employee benefit compliance issues.

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2013-02: DOL Issues Final FMLA Regulations for Military Leaves and Airline Flight Crews
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 amended the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (“FMLA”) to add two types of military leaves -- military caregiver leave and “qualifying exigency” leave. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 (“NDAA 2010”) expanded military caregiver leave by modifying the definition of a serious injury or illness to include pre-existing conditions aggravated by military service, extending the definition of a service member to include recent veterans, and modifying “qualifying exigency” leave to include family members of those serving in the Armed Forces (the previous law provided the leave only to family members of those serving in the National Guard and Reserves) and adding the requirement that the service member’s deployment must be in a foreign country (including international waters). In October 2009, Congress passed the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act (“AFCTCA”) which modified certain requirements for employees who are airline flight crew members (pilots, co-pilots, flight attendants and flight engineers). The Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued proposed regulations implementing these changes on January 30, 2012. After reviewing comments submitted, the DOL issued final regulations, which were published in the Federal Register on February 6, 2013. The proposed and final regulations provide guidance specifically in areas where military leaves – caregiver or qualifying exigency – and FMLA leaves for airline flight crew members differ from the FMLA rules for other types of leaves and employees. The effective date for the military caregiver leave for a recent veteran, new rules for airline flight crew members, and changes from prior regulations is March 8, 2013.

This Technical Bulletin summarizes the major FMLA provisions that are unique to military leaves or airline flight crew members. New items in the final regulations are noted.

2013-01: Analysis of HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule and its Impact on Plan Sponsors
January 17, 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) released the long anticipated Omnibus Rule modifying the previously issued HIPAA Rules. The Omnibus Rule implements changes to the HIPAA Rules under a number of authorities.

First, the Omnibus Rule modifies the existing Privacy, Security, and Enforcement Rules to strengthen privacy and security protections for health information. In addition, the Omnibus Rule seeks to improve enforcement under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Omnibus Rule also includes final modifications to the Breach Notification Rule, which replace an interim final rule originally published in 2009. Second, the Omnibus Rule revises the HIPAA Privacy Rule to increase privacy protections for genetic information required by the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA). Finally, HHS used its general authority under HIPAA to make a number of changes to existing rules that are intended to increase workability and flexibility, decrease burden, and better harmonize the requirements with those under other regulations.

This Technical Bulletin focuses on how the Omnibus Rule affects employers sponsoring group health plans. As such, a number of the requirements discussed in the Omnibus Rule, such as provisions relating to the sale of protected health information (“PHI”), disclosure of student immunizations to schools, fundraising and research which primarily affect health care providers are not covered in this Technical Bulletin..

2012-03: 2012 Year-End Review & Reminders
The legal, judicial and regulatory landscape for employer-sponsored health plans continued to change rapidly in 2012. Almost all of the developments were related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”). There were, however, a few developments in other areas, such as FMLA. This Technical Bulletin focuses on developments that are expected to directly impact employers sponsoring health plans – both PPACA and non-PPACA. PPACA contains a large number of provisions that affect health care providers and insurance companies directly and may affect employers indirectly.

2012-02: HHS Issues Final Regulations for Unique National Health Plan Identifier (HPID)
While HIPAA already contains a requirement for the use of a unique identifier for health plans, that requirement had not been implemented. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires the use of an identifier, but also requires HHS to establish rules for a unique identifier by a specified date. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued final regulations on September 5 adopting a national standard for a unique health plan identifier (HPID) to be used by health plans in HIPAA standard transactions . The final regulations make several changes to the proposed regulations initially published in April 2012. Health plans will be required to obtain an HPID no later than November 5, 2014 (November 5, 2015 for small health plans) and use the HPID in standard transactions beginning on November 7, 2016.

2012-01: DOL Issues New Proposed FMLA Regulations For Military Leaves and Airline Flight Crews
The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on January 30. The NPRM implements changes made by the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act and the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act both of which were enacted in late 2009.

This Technical Bulletin provides a brief summary of the new guidance on military caregiver and qualifying exigency FMLA leaves along with the special FMLA rules that apply to airline employees who are flight crew members.