Health Care Law Blog

The NLRB has decreed that, starting on January 31, 2012, health facilities must post a notice informing those on payroll of their rights to negotiate as a group and join a union…but stay tuned.

Currently, the notice is required to list:

• the rights that an employee has under the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA");
• what is illegal for an employer to do under the NLRA;
• what is illegal for a union to do under the NLRA; and
• what to do if there has been a violation of rights under the NLRA.

The NLRB has copies of a sample notice available.  The notice may be printed on multiple pieces of paper, but it must be 11-by-17-inches in size and placed in a conspicuous location. The National Labor Relations Board (the "NLRB") finalized its rule requiring this notice in the August 30, 2011 federal register.

Not surprising given the circuit court split on the issue, the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments regarding the constitutionally of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA").  The constitutionality battle revolves around PPACA's "individual mandate."  The individual mandate financially penalizes individual taxpayers who fail to maintain certain levels of health insurance coverage starting in the year 2014.

In a recent decision, the Michigan Court of Appeals held that a physician can be liable for discrimination under Michigan law for refusing to provide artificial insemination services to a single woman. Moon v Michigan Reproductive & IVF Center, PC.

A woman contacted a physician at a clinic about in vitro fertilization services.  When the physician learned that the woman was single, he advised her that the clinic did not offer insemination services to single women.  Afterwards, the woman sued the clinic for discrimination based on marital status.

Mindi Johnson and Nicole Stratton, two members of the Foster Swift Health Care Practice Group, recently presented a seminar on Health Reform - Impact and Compliance at the Public Law Employment Seminar for the Michigan Municipal League.  The seminar was part of an all day event at the Michigan Municipal League's Lansing office on topics that ranged from "Do's and Don'ts for Independent Contractors" to "Social Media and New Technology Use," the latter of which was presented by Foster Swift's Melissa Jackson and Samuel Frederick.