Recently, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor (collectively, the Departments), issued Final Rules relating to the 2020 No Surprise Act (NSA), a federal law which prohibits out-of-networks providers (‘OON Providers”) from billing patients for certain out-of-network charges if the patient did not know/consent to the use of the OON Provider (as opposed to the patient selecting an in-network provider for the same product or services). Effective October 25, 2022, the Final Rules are intended to ensure a more balanced approach to negotiations between OON Providers and group health plans and health insurance issuers (“Plans”) regarding payment for out-of-network products or services.

On September 29, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law California Assembly Bill 1278 (AB 1278) which will require physicians and their employers to provide patients with notice of the Open Payments database at the initial office visit. By adopting AB 1278, which goes into effect on January 1, 2023, California becomes the first state to impose this disclosure obligation on physicians.

Effective January 1, 2022, a new California law imposes criminal penalties on employers who intentionally withhold wages and tips from their employees. The law was passed on September 27, 2021, when California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into effect Assembly Bill 1003, making an employer’s intentional theft of wages - in an amount greater than nine hundred fifty dollars ($950) from any one employee, or two thousand three hundred fifty dollars ($2,350) in the aggregate from two or more employees, in any consecutive 12-month period - punishable as grand theft.

The COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act (COVID-19 Act) was passed last year to protect the public from deceptive marketing related to the treatment, cure, prevention, mitigation, or diagnosis of COVID–19, or any government benefit related to COVID-19, by making such practices illegal under the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act). The COVID-19 Act also authorizes the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to seek civil monetary penalties for first-time violations of the COVID-19 Act, a remedy not normally available under the FTC Act.

The California legislature recently passed SB 1159, significantly expanding the governor’s executive order (N-62-20) of May 6 (“Executive Order”) regarding workers’ compensation and employer liability for COVID-19.

The Executive Order created a rebuttable presumption[1] that any employee diagnosed with COVID-19 from March 19 to July 5, who had visited the workplace at the direction of their employer and received positive results within 14 days of such visit, was presumed to have contracted the disease on the job, and therefore, could file a workers’ compensation claim.

The State of California is taking additional steps to report sexual misconduct and abuse of patients by licensed health care providers. Effective January 1, 2020, Health Care Facilities and Other Entities (defined below) that arrange for services provided by certain licensed healthcare professionals can now be held liable for failing to report sexual misconduct or sexual abuse of their patients by providers.