Industry Updates
This broad category includes articles concerning health insurance costs, carrier and health plan news, changing benefits technology, and surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and others on employee benefits.
The pandemic shackles on California’s economy will have officially lasted 452 days — from a full lockdown starting in March 2020 to an all-but-reopened business world after June 15. The economic toll of strict mandates to slow the spread of COVID-19 was high. For years to come, there will be grand debates over the government’s ...
The events of the last few days raise the question: In eight days, will Californians mistakenly believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is over? After all, Gov. Gavin Newsom has promised a “full reopening” of the state on that date.
Mask-optional workplaces are almost here, as long as a proposal from California’s workplace safety agency gets final approval. As the state moves toward lifting many COVID-19 pandemic restrictions June 15
At the start of the year, infectious disease experts across California were, in their own words, stumbling around in a blind frenzy.
California continues to help set the pace for U.S. COVID-19 recovery, now ranked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of just two states at the lowest level of coronavirus community transmission. In fact, according to the CDC’s four-level color-coded system, California’s transmission metrics were the lowest out of all 50 states ...
California enacted a new law in 2016 requiring employers that do not already sponsor an employee-retirement plan to participate in a state-run retirement program called CalSavers. The law, implemented in stages, compels automatic enrollment in the program for employees, beginning with a 5% salary reduction, although employees can opt-out or make changes to the plan. ...
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced cash incentives to spur coronavirus vaccine-hesitant residents to get their shots, he emphasized everyone who received a dose was automatically entered into state databases. “We have your information in our system,” he said, referring to the millions of vaccination records in the California Public Department of Health’s confidential, digital Immunization Information ...
The California Department of Public Health is warning residents to be on guard for potential scams related to the state’s new COVID-19 vaccination incentive programs. The first “Vax for the Win” drawing was held on June 4. The program, which will ultimately award $116.5 million to previously immunized individuals and individuals who agree to be immunized, is ...
As the coronavirus pandemic wanes across California, a handful of counties along the northernmost edge of the state that were spared the worst of last year’s surge are now seeing an alarming rise in cases driven by the spread of variants and deep-rooted resistance to vaccines. With the states June 15 target for reopening in ...
Scientists are increasingly confident that vaccines provide long-lasting protection against the coronavirus and that boosters will not be necessary for at least a year, perhaps much longer. The vaccines are holding up well against all coronavirus variants so far. That means boosters probably won’t be needed anytime soon to protect against variants. Even more promising, ...