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States Target School Cell Phone Use At least four states have banned or severely restricted the use of smart phones in schools in the current legislative biennium. Florida became the first state to do...
Compounded Weight-Loss Drugs Creating Headaches for State Regulators With popular weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy in short supply, many doctors, pharmacies and other providers have...
In their seminal book on the American health care system, legendary investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele offered a disturbing metaphor for the illogical nature of medical pricing...
PA Lawmakers Pass Bill Regulating PBMs The Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill ( HB 1993 ) aimed at increasing oversight of pharmacy benefit managers. If signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the measure...
In a sign of the times, states have begun pursuing bills that require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence. In March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed SB 149 , making the state the first...
Michigan is poised to become the first state in almost 60 years to repeal a right-to-work law, after the state’s Democrat-led Legislature approved a bill (HB 4005) along party lines last week that would repeal the 2012 Republican-backed law barring unions in the state from requiring membership as a condition of employment. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said she planned to sign the measure into law. Some business groups and labor opponents are considering an effort to put a measure on the state’s 2024 ballot enshrining right-to-work in the state’s Constitution. (DETROIT NEWS, MLIVE, NEW YORK TIMES, PLURIBUS NEWS, STATE NET)
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed a bill (HB 131) this month prohibiting most private employers from considering vaccination status when making employment decisions, including those related to hiring and determining compensation. The measure provides some exemptions, such as for employers that are federal contractors and for entities that would violate mandatory requirements for funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by complying with the law. (SHRM, STATE NET)
In a memo to agency staff National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said a Feb. 21 decision by the board retroactively prohibits severance agreements hindering workers from filing lawsuits or communicating with the board, unions or the media. The board’s February decision voided a pair of Trump-era rulings holding that a severance agreement only violates federal labor law if an employer engages in “animus and additional coercive or otherwise unlawful conduct” to get a worker to sign it. (REUTERS, INSURANCE JOURNAL)
A bill (AB 259) introduced this month in Nevada would require providers of “jobs and day training services,” starting in 2028, to pay those with intellectual or developmental disabilities no less than the state minimum wage. Nevada’s minimum wage will increase to $12 per hour next year. (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, STATE NET)
—Compiled by KOREY CLARK