New I-9 Form Available As Of July 17, 2017

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has released a revised version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, as of July 17, 2017. 

Instructions for how to download Form I-9 are available on the Form I-9 page. Employers can use this revised version or continue using Form I-9 with a revision date of 11/14/16 N through Sept. 17, 2017. On Sept. 18, 2017 employers must use the revised form with a revision date of 07/17/17 N. Employers must continue following existing storage and retention rules for any previously completed Form I-9.

Revisions to the Form I-9 instructions include:

• Changed the name of the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices to its new name, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section.
• Removed “the end of” from the phrase “the first day of employment.”

Revisions related to the List of Acceptable Documents on Form I-9 include:

• Added the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (Form FS-240) to List C. Employers completing Form I-9 on a computer will be able to select Form FS-240 from the drop-down menus available in List C of Sections 2 and 3. E-Verify users will also be able to select Form FS-240 when creating a case for an employee who has presented this document for Form I-9.
• Combined all the certifications of report of birth issued by the Department of State (Form FS-545, Form DS-1350, and Form FS-240) into selection C #2 in List C.
• Renumbered all List C documents except the Social Security card. For example, the employment authorization document issued by the Department of Homeland Security on List C changed from List C #8 to List C #7.

These changes are also included in the revised Handbook for Employers: Guidance for Completing Form I-9 (M-274), which is now easier for users to navigate. 

E-Verify User Manual Update

E-Verify recently revised the E-Verify User Manual to include the most current system enhancements and policy updates. The manual has a new look and feel, looks better on the computer screen, and has a more user friendly navigation. Some sections have been reorganized and consolidated to improve the flow and readability of the information. To assist you in identifying the updates, the revised manual includes a Table of Changes.

See the Contact E-Verify page for E-Verify technical support, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Visit I-9 Central to get more details and to stay informed of other upcoming changes.

Healthcare Compliance Solutions Inc. (HCSI) clients will also be able to download the new I-9 form and "Handbook for Employers: Guidance for Completing Form I-9" from our website https://www.hcsiinc.com/ in the "Employment Law (HR)" section found under the in the "Updates/News" link.

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Hiring and Your Social Media Advantage

Using social media as part of your hiring process will help you find the kind of employees you want for your organization.

Jennifer was hired two months ago by her new boss Sally. Jennifer was an okay worker, but there were some things about her character that concerned Sally and Jennifer's co-workers. She had the skills to do the job, but she was not fitting into her team or the culture of the organization. Sally had thought she made a good hire, but was beginning to doubt Jennifer's longevity with the organization. When it came time for Jennifer's new hire 90-day review, Sally had no choice but to let her go. By this time Jennifer had become a negative influence on her co-workers and morale was beginning to suffer. It was time for Sally to being the costly and time consuming hiring process over again.

Hiring managers are faced with the described situation above far too often. They think they have made a good hire, but soon realize the mistake they made. 20 years ago, hiring somebody who's character and personality does not fit within the organizational culture would be very difficult to foresee. Today, there are resources available through social media that help hiring mangers make more informed hiring decisions.

Why is Character So Important?

When a new employee is brought into an organization, that new employee will have an effect on their co-workers and on the culture of the organization itself. Whether that effect is positive or negative greatly depends upon the character of the the new employee. It is important to take the character of a potential new hire into account before making the hiring decision. Finding someone who has the basic skills and knowledge to get the job done is critical to being able to do the job. With this in mind, if a hiring manager can find a candidate who has good basic skills, not superman skills, but a basic understanding of the job skills and knowledge, but also has good character, then that is a great candidate.

Social Media Resource

When a hiring manager begins to narrow his or her list of candidates down to the final few, it is time to find out more about their character. One of the best places to discover more about a persons character is by reviewing the select candidates social media profiles and posts. This enables a hiring manager to get a basic understanding of the candidates and their character. It is through the language they use, their posts, and how they interact with others that gives the hiring manager look at the personality and character of who they are looking to hire.

Social Media and Privacy

Some hiring managers may say that they do not feel comfortable looking at a candidates social media profiles due to it being perceived as an invasion of privacy. It is important to understand that anything posted online within a blog or social media is not private! Anything posted on the Internet is available to anyone at anytime and cannot be permanently removed. Any type of posting on the Internet, immediately becomes public knowledge. Reviewing someones social media profiles is not an invasion of privacy.

Hiring managers are given the responsibility to bring the best and most qualified new employees into their organization. Having the ability to review social media profiles makes it less of a crap shoot to accomplish this task.

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Policies and Procedures, Compliance Training and HR

Maintaining Compliance and also Keeping HR in the Loop

In your ongoing efforts to provide an office culture of compliance, it is important to remember that HIPAA requires covered entities to establish and implement written policies and procedures that are consistent with its Privacy and Security Rules.  It can also be important for your Human Resource officer(s) to be involved with HIPAA compliance related issues in the business.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has begun its Phase 2 HIPAA Audit Program.  The Program will focus on the policies and procedures adopted and employed by covered entities and their business associates to meet the requirements of the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules.  Furthermore, if a group health plan is selected for an audit, it would have a very short time to produce its policies and procedures (i.e., 10 business days).  If the group health plan does not comply (for example, because it does not have policies and procedures), the OCR will likely impose corrective measures which could include costly civil monetary penalties.

HIPAA policies and procedures have important functions, including but not limited to:

• Limiting uses and disclosures of Protected Health Information (“PHI”) to the minimum amount reasonably necessary to achieve the purpose of the use or disclosure;
• Identifying the workforce members who need access to PHI and electronic PHI (“e-PHI”) to carry out their duties, the categories of PHI that they need, and any conditions under which they need the PHI to do their jobs;
• Ensuring appropriate protection of e-PHI when it is transferred, removed, disposed and electronic media is re-used; and
• Ensuring that e-PHI is not improperly altered or destroyed.

However, it is not sufficient for a covered entity to merely adopt its HIPAA policies and procedures.  The health practice office must also:

• Designate a privacy and security official to develop and implement policies and procedures; 
• Train applicable workforce members on its policies and procedures as necessary for them to carry out their functions, and apply appropriate sanctions against workforce members who violate its policies and procedures;
• Periodically assess how well its policies and procedures meet the requirements of the Security Rule; and
• Designate a contact person responsible for receiving complaints and providing individuals with information on the covered entity’s privacy practices.

There is no template for HIPAA policies and procedures.  Instead employers have the flexibility to design policies and procedures that are appropriate for their size, organizational structure, and risks to PHI and e-PHI.  Furthermore, as employers evolve, so should their policies and procedures.  For example, if an employer adopts a telework policy, it may wish to review whether its policies and procedures appropriately address issues involving remote access.

Summarizing, although not a new requirement, due to new technologies, evolving business and regulatory practices, along with impending HHS audits, employers may want to review their HIPAA policies and procedures to make sure that they are compliant and up-to-date. Many HIPAA policies inherently overlap with Human Resource's duties: training, disciplinary actions and employee health information for examples.

The increase in audits — combined with everything from changes in technology, the addition of a health and wellness program and concerns about hacking — serve as a good reminder why employers should revisit HIPAA training often and collaborate with HR to ensure compliance.

Many of the employers facing fines are healthcare providers, health plans or healthcare clearinghouses (organizations considered as covered entities under HIPAA). But most HR professionals also handle protected health information (PHI) to some extent, which puts them in danger of violating the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

Employers should have a written policy in place about how they handle PHI and designate PHI handlers and a HIPAA privacy officer. The policy should outline what types of information are considered PHI and how employers may and may not use it. It should also include a procedure for handling complaints and a process for employees to file them if they think their privacy rights are being violated.

Employees who may handle PHI should be trained on the dos and don’ts of handling protected health information, especially as it relates to electronic information. It’s vital for the HR team to understand the implications of handling PHI in emails, storing it on the cloud, or communicating about it over other electronic formats. And when discussing matters containing PHI with an employee, it’s important to have a signed HIPAA authorization form for the release of employee health information.

Lastly, the HIPAA privacy officer should review compliance documents and ensure that agreements with vendors who handle PHI, called “business associate agreements,” are up to date. The federal government considers vendors and subcontractors to be business associates if they handle PHI on behalf of the covered entity.

Source(s): http://www.hhs.com, http://www.jdsupra.com, https://www.benefitnews.com, http://www.hcsiinc.com

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