The Vita Blog October 2018

The New York State mandate applies to all employers, regardless of their size, who employ anyone in the state of New York. The New York City mandate applies to all employers with 15 or more employees. 

Overview

Earlier this year, both New York State and New York City enacted sexual harassment prevention laws, with different provisions for employee communication and training along with various dates for compliance. As of note, New York State passed a law requiring employers to provide sexual-harassment training to all workers by October 9, 2019. An overview of the laws can be found here.

Employer Requirements

The New York State law applies to all employers, regardless of their size, who employ anyone in New York State. Furthermore, it applies to all contractors who bid on New York State contracts and to all employees (not just supervisors). It also requires that the training is provided annually. It's important to note that if an individual works a portion of their time in New York State, even if they’re based in another state, they must be trained.

The New York City law applies to all employers with 15 or more employees, and requires annual sexual harassment training for all employees, beginning on April 1, 2019.

The sexual harassment training must provide the following:

• An explanation of sexual harassment and specific examples of inappropriate conduct.
• Detailed information concerning federal, state and local laws and the remedies available to victims of harassment.
• An explanation of employees' external rights of redress and the available administrative and judicial forums for bringing complaints
  

Employer Action Items

In New York State:

• All sexual harassment training must be completed by October 9, 2019 (applies to all employers regardless of size and all employees, including transient)
• Annual training is required
• Employer policy must be posted
• New hire training as quickly as possible

In New York City*:

• Effective September 6, 2018, policy and posters must be posted
• Sexual harassment training is effective April 1, 2019 and all training must be completed by April 1, 2020 (applies to all employers with 15 or more employees and all employees, working more than 80+ hours/calendar year)
• Annual training is required
• Prominently displayed English & Spanish posters
• Provide information fact sheet to every new hire
• New hire training within 90 days
• Maintain training records for 3 years

*New York State law covers New York City employers and their employees. Where New York State law provides greater protections, it takes precedence over New York City law.

Solution for Vita Clients

Vita provides online employee training at no additional cost as part of our client service offering, including California and New York mandated harassment training. For more information about this solution, reach out to your account team, or contact us at 650-968-8811.

This requirement applies to employers of all sizes in New Jersey. 

Overview

On May 2, 2018, a statewide mandatory paid-sick-leave law in New Jersey known as the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act was signed into law. It will go into effect on October 29. Once in effect, it will require New Jersey employers of all sizes to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year to covered employees. A copy of the legislation can be found here.

Required Notice for Employers Released 

Recently, New Jersey released its Earned Sick Leave Notice for all employers to use in connection with the newly implemented sick leave law.

Employer Action Items

• The notice must be distributed to all existing employees by November 29, 2018
• The notice must be distributed to all new employees at the time of hire 
• The notice must be posted in a place frequented by employees (i.e. a break room or communal area) by October 29, 2018
  

A copy of the employer notice can be viewed here.

This requirement applies to all employers with prescription drug benefits within their group health plans. 

Overview

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulations require annual notice to all plan participants regarding the Medicare Part D Prescription benefit “creditability” of your group health plan. This notice must be provided prior to October 15 to coincide with the annual Medicare open enrollment period which runs from October 15 to December 7. This notification provides Medicare-eligible employees with important information to help determine whether they need to enroll in Medicare Part D.

Again?  Didn’t I just do this in January/February? 

Not quite.  Same law, different requirement.  In addition to this annual employee disclosure requirement each fall, plan sponsors must report creditability information directly to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) within 60 days of the first day of the ERISA plan year.  Many Vita benefits clients have a January 1 ERISA plan year (which may – or may not – coincide with your renewal or policy year); so for many employers, the deadline is the end of February

How Do We Know If Our Prescription Benefit Is “Creditable”?

A prescription drug plan is considered "creditable" if the prescription drug benefits are expected to pay as much as or more than standard Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. If a plan will not pay out as much as Medicare prescription drug plans pay, it is considered "non-creditable".

If you are a Vita Benefits Group client, you can confirm the creditability of your own plan by referring to your ERISA Welfare Plan Summary Plan Description (SPD).

Employer Action Item

The ERISA SPD that Vita provides our clients has been designed to incorporate all of the necessary disclosure language for the Medicare Part D Creditability requirement.  If you have distributed this SPD to your employees in 2018 (or since October 15 of last year), you are already in compliance with the annual disclosure requirement.  If you have not already distributed the latest SPD, now would be a good time to do so! Not a Vita client and need some help? Let's chat!

If you prefer to send a separate Medicare Part D creditability notice, you may use the sample documents (model notices) available through the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services website. There you can find sample documents for plans that are creditable or non-creditable for Medicare Part D purposes.  Please note that the vast majority of group health plans include prescription benefits that are creditable.