Preparing Employers and Employees for 2021 Benefit Plans Decisions
The 2025 open enrollment season for employee benefits is swiftly approaching. With newly released IRS guidance, employers should review the cost of their group health plan(s) to ensure affordability. Companies that rely on...more
Open enrollment season can put a spotlight on the many complex rules applicable to employer-sponsored health and welfare plans. As you announce your benefit offerings for the upcoming plan year and tirelessly work to inform...more
Employees increasingly request (and expect) choice in their benefits. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released Private Letter Ruling 202434006 (PLR), which approved an employer's program allowing employees to...more
Inevitably, an employee will wake up from their holiday food coma and realize that they made a mistake in open enrollment. “But I didn’t mean to elect family coverage! My spouse is covering the kids this year!” Employers are...more
On August 23, the Internal Revenue Service issued Rev. Proc. 2023-29, announcing that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affordability threshold will be 8.39% for plan years beginning in 2024, a substantial decrease from the 9.12%...more
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), applicable large employers (ALEs) — i.e., those with, on average, fifty (50) or more full-time or full-time-equivalent employees in the preceding year — must offer in the following year...more
The Senate ushered in the New Year with a bang by passing SECURE 2.0 on December 22, 2022. SECURE 2.0 includes many updates to the sweeping changes brought about under 2019’s original SECURE Act legislation...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration announced the cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits on various employer-sponsored retirement and welfare plans and the Social...more
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced (See Revenue Procedure 2022-24) cost-of-living adjustments to the applicable dollar limits for health savings accounts (HSAs), high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and...more
In Washington: President Biden will join leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) nations this Friday for a virtual summit focused on the global response to COVID-19, the White House said Sunday. Other discussions at the summit...more
On July 17, the IRS issued Notice 2019-45 (the Notice), expanding the concept of preventive care to certain services and items that target specific chronic conditions, such as testing strips and insulin for diabetes. As...more
As open enrollment approaches for the 2019 calendar year, below are some items employers may want to consider: Wellness program changes – Many employers change their wellness programs during open enrollment. This is a...more
As 2017 comes to an end, we are pleased to present our traditional End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we are presenting our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. This Part 1 will cover...more
As background, before 2014, an employee’s election to enroll in his or her employer’s health plan pursuant to a cafeteria plan was irrevocable for the entire plan year, unless the employee incurred an event that affected his...more
Reductions in uninsured rates are greatest in states with Medicaid expansions and State-based or State Partnership Marketplaces; Kentucky finds increased use of preventive healthcare following Medicaid expansion; and,...more
As employers and plans prepare for 2016 open enrollment, they must be sure to address in their benefit design and with their third party vendors the new embedded out-of-pocket maximum limitations on individuals that were...more
We are now more than two weeks into the Affordable Care Act (ACA’s) second open enrollment period, and 765,000 individuals have obtained coverage through HealthCare.gov. On Capitol Hill, House lawmakers filed a lawsuit...more
New IRS guidance adds two more events that allow participants to change their cafeteria plan elections outside of the annual open enrollment period. These events are designed to coordinate with the employer coverage rules and...more
Health & Welfare Plans - Health Care Reform: Federal Health Insurance Marketplace Opens With Technical “Glitches” - The federal health insurance marketplace (also known as the federal “exchange”) began accepting...more
There is only one week left of Congress’ summer recess. While the members have been in their home districts, the agencies in Washington have been finalizing Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations on everything from the...more
Today, the Internal Revenue Service issued long-awaited guidance on the treatment of same-sex spouses for Federal tax purposes. On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Windsor, 133 S.Ct. 2675 (2013), that...more
For the past several months (and, in many cases, years), most large employers have been preparing for the consequences of offering (or not offering) their workforce health coverage and complying with the complexities...more