Organizing Your Company’s Health and Welfare Plans Part 2: Creating a Committee Checklist

In the prior article we discussed the reasoning behind creation of a health and welfare committee to oversee administration of the health and welfare plans. In creating a charter, a plan sponsor will need to decide whether to include a work plan as an exhibit to that charter as a general guide to more comprehensive compliance. This work plan helps to serve as a roadmap of issues to be covered, with some tasks performed only on an as-needed basis. 

Below are some ideas of what to include in a committee workplan to help build a foundation for plan maintenance: 

1. Identify parties-in-interest and review potential prohibited transactions under Section 406 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
2. Review Requests for Proposals from various third-party service providers. 
3. Consider benefits denials for any self-insured plans as may be consistent with committee charter and plan documents. 
4. Consider other plan administrative issues and changes in law brought to the attention of the committee. For example, how to respond to written requests for health care plan documents given the Department of Labor’s final mental health parity regulations, which indicate that responses to written ERISA document requests may now include non-quantitative treatment limitation (“NQTL”) comparative analyses.

Annually or quarterly (unless otherwise stated below), a Committee may want to also take the following actions:

1. Consider new legal or other developments impacting the plans along with consideration of proposed amendments related to the same and responsibility for implementation.  
2. Review status of all required participant disclosures and required disclosure timelines. 
3. Review service provider performance, including participant complaints.
4. Collect and evaluate the broker and consultant fee disclosures required under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.
5. Review and file any applicable Forms 5500 for each plan. 
6. Review mental health parity compliance and execute the fiduciary certification for the NQTL comparative analysis, if applicable.
7. Conduct periodic requests for proposals so that fee pricing remains competitive. This may occur on 3-5 year cycles or may be consistent with any contract year ends.

In upcoming articles, we will address areas of focus or substantive areas in which relatively new guidance has been issued.