On August 9-10, 2016, I attended a two-day workshop held by the National Academy of Education (NAEd) titled “Big Data: Balancing Research Needs and Student Privacy.”

More Federal lending programs are focusing their attention and scrutiny on the importance of procedural documentation. As part of this effort, Congress requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examine the credit subsidy documentation for three Federal credit agencies:

On July 21, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) published a proposed rule on annual reporting and disclosure, which describes revisions to the Form 5500. The Form 5500 is an annual report filed by pension, health, and other employee benefit plans that fulfills reporting requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

On May 18, 2016, the White House and Department of Labor (DOL) released a final rule updating overtime pay regulations, raising the standard salary level for exempt workers from $455 weekly to $913. Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay; exempt employees are not. Effective December 1, 2016, workers earning less than $913 per week will not be eligible for exempt status, extending overtime pay protection to 4.2 million currently exempt workers. (DOL Fact Sheet: https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/overtime-factsheet.htm.)

Happy anniversary to Summit! Last week we celebrated Summit's accomplishments over the past thirteen years. We talked about our projects, remembered our successes, and recognized the outstanding people who make it all possible: our clients, employees, and teaming partners.

Need a couple of new podcasts to enjoy on your commute or in your downtime? Love statistics and data science? We have you covered!

On June 7, 2016, Summit won The Sister Eymard Gallagher Award for Service to Others from the HR Leadership Association (HRLA) of Greater Washington. This award honors Summit's team for "leadership, dedication and engagement of employees to give back to the community through service to others."

Summit Consulting and the University of Maryland (UMD) recently hosted the second-ever American Statistical Association (ASA) DataFest in Washington, DC. (Read about the first annual DC DataFest here.) This year’s special “celebration of data” was co-hosted by the University of Maryland's Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM) and Summit Consulting.

In this series of blog posts, we are using an all-payer claims database (APCD) from the state of New Hampshire to explore some questions related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).