PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Gag Clause Prohibitions
Changing Telehealth Rules
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Health Plan Transparency Requirements
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Group Health Plan Service Provider Compensation Disclosure Requirements
Podcast: What's New for Insurers in Mental Health Parity Compliance - Diagnosing Health Care
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Employee Retention Tax Credit Expansion
Department of Labor Imposes Additional Requirement on Employer-Provided Health Services
COVID-19 Relief in 2021: What Small Businesses Need to Know
On-Demand Webinar | Navigating Leave and Disability Protection Laws During COVID-19: A Practical Guide for California Employers
COVID-19 in the Workplace - PPP Update, COVID Plans from the Biden Transition Team, Higher Education Relief Package Provision, COVID WARN Act Developments
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New Round of COVID-19 Relief Expands Assistance for Employers
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) was enacted to ensure that group health plans and health insurance issuers offering mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits do not impose...more
On this episode of Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion, host Brydon DeWitt discusses prohibitive gag clauses under the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA). While intended to promote transparency, not all gag clauses are...more
The U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury have announced that they will pause enforcement of the 2024 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) Final Rule (the “2024 Final Rule”) for...more
Under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), as amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2021, group health plans and health insurance issuers must conduct comparative analyses to show that...more
On January 14, 2024, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Office of Personnel Management (the “Departments”) jointly released the FAQs About Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 Implementation Part 69...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld regulations defining the qualifying payment amount (QPA). The QPA is a key factor in determining how much individuals and health plans must pay out-of-network providers in...more
Many employers offer health insurance as a way to recruit and retain talent. Sponsoring a group health plan, however, can subject the employer plan sponsor to significant legal and regulatory burdens deriving from laws such...more
SECURE 2.0, which was signed into law on December 29, 2022 as part of the larger Consolidated Appropriations Act, is the most wide-sweeping retirement plan legislation enacted in more than a decade. It contains a myriad of...more
After months of suspense and intrigue on whether SECURE 2.0 would make it to the finish line and become law, the U.S. Congress ended the suspense by attaching SECURE 2.0 to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 funding...more
The President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which included SECURE Act 2.0, on December 29, 2022. SECURE Act 2.0 has over 90 provisions, some major and some minor; some mandatory and some optional; some...more
As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, President Biden signed into law the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (“MoCRA”). This is the first major reform of cosmetics regulation since the Federal...more
Buried within the thousands of pages of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 is the most significant statutory expansion to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority over cosmetics since 1938...more
For nearly three years, federal and state agencies have waived or relaxed regulatory requirements and expanded reimbursement for services due to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), but the signs indicate that the...more
On December 30, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2021-03 (“FAB”), announcing its temporary enforcement policy for group health plan service provider disclosures under ERISA...more
In a FAQ published on August 20, 2021, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) significantly delayed implementation of statutory requirements on surprise billing...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
Effective January 1, 2022, the “No Surprises Act” signed into U.S. law as part of H.R. 133, “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” implicates (1) emergency services provided by non-participating providers at participating...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2021, enacted late in 2020, imposes a new requirement on group health plans to ensure compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). Unlike many of the...more
Included within the 5539 pages of statutory changes in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the COVID-19 relief bill signed into law at the end of December 2020) are important new “transparency” laws that affect third...more
The Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) states that its mission "is to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are...more
Modifications also include public disclosure of accreditation organization survey information and intermediate civil penalty remedies for noncompliance. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Pub. L. 116-260), signed into...more
As we addressed in our recent LawFlash covering the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Act), the Act includes several requirements to enhance group health plan transparency. One provision we wanted to further highlight...more
On January 1, 2021, Congress overrode President Trump’s veto, passing into law the annual National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (“NDAA”). ...more
Over a year after Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to clarify tip ownership questions, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) finally published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on October 8, 2019, with proposed...more