As employers look back at 2023 and ahead to 2024, there are so many compliance-related items to consider relating to their employee benefit plans. The rules employers are supposed to be complying with keep growing and...more
12/19/2023
/ Attestation Deadlines ,
Beneficiaries ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Compliance ,
Contribution Limits ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Gag Clauses ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Retirement ,
Student Loans
On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and overruled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey. In doing so, the Court held...more
6/30/2022
/ Abortion ,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ,
Employee Assistance Programs ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey ,
Preemption ,
Roe v Wade ,
SCOTUS ,
Self-Funded Health Plans
Ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a final regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) that required retirement plan service providers to disclose information about...more
Late last Friday afternoon, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury issued some new frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding implementation of the transparency in coverage (TIC) regulations...more
Late last week, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), which makes COBRA continuation coverage free for certain qualifying individuals and their families from April 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021....more
On December 6, 2020, we posted an article titled “RADICAL new transparency rules likely apply to your health plan in one year.” The regulations are a little more than 150 PDF pages long. The following is intended to provide a...more
New rules published last month likely require your employer health plan to phase-in certain disclosures over a three-year period beginning in one year:
1. January 1, 2022 (three files must be disclosed): For plan years...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor, and the Department of the Treasury (the Departments) issued new final regulations that will impose price transparency requirements on...more
If you only read this first paragraph, that is okay. One of the most common issues we face with DOL investigations of employer health plans involves mental health parity compliance. For those of you who sponsor a qualified...more
Last Friday night, President Trump signed into law a year-end $1.4 trillion spending bill that will fund the government through September 30, 2020. Included in the bill were a number of provisions that impact...more
12/24/2019
/ 401k ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Cadillac Tax ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Excise Tax ,
Federal Budget ,
Health Insurance ,
Qualified Retirement Plans ,
Repeal ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
SECURE Act ,
Tax Deferral ,
Tax Planning ,
Trump Administration
In the last few weeks we have talked to hundreds of employers about the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which was proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 6. Many of you have asked about the AHCA, how it might...more
About a month ago, and just months before the reporting deadlines required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were set to go into effect, the Internal Revenue Service gave us all a late Christmas present and announced that...more
On December 18th, Congress voted to approve an omnibus spending deal to fund the federal government. This spending package includes a two-year delay – from 2018 to 2020 – of the so-called “Cadillac tax,” which was enacted as...more
The insurance exchanges created under Affordable Care Act have facilitated increased competition. Old version managed care models implemented cost-savings measures like pre-authorizations for medical care, hospital length of...more
For several years now, employers have spent a great deal of time focusing on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) play-or-pay mandate. Numerous articles have been written and numerous educational seminars have been given...more
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has consumed us for the last four and a half years. As employers, we have spent so much time trying to figure out what the ACA requires, trying to hit the government’s moving regulatory targets,...more