GOVERNMENTNews in brief - Nov. 17, 2008San Francisco employer mandate challenged San Francisco employer mandate challengedTwo national business groups are asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its recent decision upholding a San Francisco ordinance mandating employer contributions to health coverage. The measure requires that employers with 20 or more workers spend a certain amount on health coverage or put the money into a pool to fund a universal access program for the city's uninsured and underinsured. A panel of the 9th Circuit in September ruled that the mandate did not violate the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. But the National Business Group on Health and the ERISA Industry Committee disagreed in a friend-of-the-court brief the organizations filed jointly on Nov. 3. The business groups say ERISA was intended to contain health care costs and encourage employer-sponsored health coverage by streamlining national benefits administration, rather than leaving it up to individual states or municipalities. The organizations fear the panel's decision, if upheld, would have the opposite effect and are supporting a petition by the Golden Gate Restaurant Assn. -- which challenged the city ordinance in court -- for a review by the full 9th Circuit. Copyright 2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. |
Space invader
The exam room where a meteorite hit a Virginia doctors' office has become the most requested room among patients, who joke about wearing hard hats to appointments.
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