Philadelphia has passed legislation prohibiting discrimination and requiring accommodation on the basis of needs related to menstruation, perimenopause, or menopause, becoming the first major U.S. city to explicitly offer these expansive protections. Only Rhode Island currently protects menopause, although New York is considering a similar bill.
Philadelphia amended its Fair Employment Practices Ordinance on December 19, 2025, to add these conditions as protected classes.… Continue Reading
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations require updates to the Notice of Privacy Practices that health plan sponsors furnish to plan participants and health care providers furnish to patients. The updates must be made by February 16, 2026.
The regulations require changes to the Notice of Privacy Practices for information regarding certain substance use disorder treatment information and reproductive health information.… Continue Reading
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has finalized the rule overhauling the H‑1B cap selection process, replacing the longstanding random lottery with a wage-based, weighted selection system. The final rule makes no changes to the regulatory text from the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in September 2025. The rule is scheduled to take effect February 27, 2026, positioning it to govern the upcoming H-1B cap lottery in March 2026.… Continue Reading
Following acting chair Andrea Lucas’s earlier pledge to more aggressively enforce civil rights laws against employers who disadvantage U.S. workers, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has released a new Technical Assistance document cautioning companies that preferring H-1B visa holders may constitute unlawful national origin discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.… Continue Reading
As employers gear up for another round of Affordable Care Act (Forms 1094 and 1095) reporting, they should consider guidance that may have been issued too late in the last reporting cycle for them to take into account but could provide partial relief for this annual headache this time around. The guidance makes it permissible for employers to post a website notice of availability of Forms 1095-B and 1095-C (Notice of Availability or Notice) with respect to the ACA forms rather than distributing the forms to every individual.… Continue Reading
The New York City Council recently voted to override the veto of Mayor Eric Adams and pass two laws aimed at increasing pay equity and transparency. These laws amend the administrative code of the City of New York and will require private employers with 200 or more employees in the City to annually report certain workforce demographic data to the City. … Continue Reading
On December 10, 2025, the Department of Justice filed a complaint in Minnesota federal court against Minneapolis Public Schools (“MPS”) Special School District No. 1, its Board of Directors, and the MPS Superintendent. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants are discriminating against teachers based on their race, color, sex, and national origin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, based on provisions in the Defendants’ collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the teachers’ union.… Continue Reading
U.S. employers and employees with nonimmigrant visa status should be aware of significant disruptions in the scheduling of H-1B and H-4 visa interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, with the potential for broader disruptions. Many interviews scheduled on or after December 15, 2025, are being unilaterally rescheduled to several months later—some as late as June 2026—to allow for implementation of new Department of State security procedures, which require U.S.… Continue Reading
Although much of our attention this fall was focused on the government shutdown, health plan sponsors may be interested in several less-publicized developments affecting group health plans.
Just before Thanksgiving, Pennsylvania gave some employees another reason to give thanks. On November 25, 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act into law. The law amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) to define “race” and “religious creed”—two classes which are legally protected against workplace discrimination—to include certain hairstyles and head coverings.… Continue Reading