News & Analysis as of

Employer Group Health Plans Employee Benefits Health and Welfare Plans

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz LLP

Why More Employers Are Turning to ICHRA for Affordable Health Care Benefits

Many employers have faced the same “knot in the stomach” moment during insurance renewal season. We’re all too familiar with the stress of inexplicably rising health care costs, especially when group plan risk pools take an...more

Husch Blackwell LLP

Employers Continue to Face ERISA Tobacco Surcharge Lawsuits, With Mixed Results

Husch Blackwell LLP on

Recently, companies have seen a spate of class action lawsuits challenging the legality of tobacco cessation wellness programs and related tobacco surcharges imposed by their employer-sponsored health benefit plans....more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Complying With the ‘Relevant Data’ Requirement Under the Final 2024 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act: A Proposal for...

McDermott Will & Schulte on

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) generally requires group health plans and health insurance issuers to ensure that financial requirements (such as copays and deductibles), quantitative treatment...more

Alston & Bird

2024 Health Benefits Year: A Year to Remember

Alston & Bird on

The year was packed with developments for health and welfare benefits plans. Our Health Benefits Team reviews 2024, from new data privacy rules to disaster tax relief....more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Employee Benefit Plans: Important Considerations for Year-End and 2025

McDermott Will & Schulte on

For calendar-year plans, the 2025 plan year is right around the corner. And even for non-calendar-year plans, January 1, 2025, is a key implementation date for certain plan features. This is the ideal time for plan sponsors...more

UB Greensfelder LLP

What Employers Should Know About Tobacco Surcharge Litigation

UB Greensfelder LLP on

Tobacco surcharges have become the focus of class action litigation in recent months. Although corporate wellness programs are commonplace, employers that impose a tobacco surcharge (or other premium discount) in connection...more

Williams Mullen

Annual Employee Benefits Compliance Checklists: Plan Administrators of Governmental and Church Plans

Williams Mullen on

Administrators of governmental plans and church plans that are not subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) should review the following actions to be taken before the end of 2024 and address what...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Agencies Release 2026 Out-of-Pocket Limits and 2025 Limits for Health FSAs

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Recently HHS issued a memorandum announcing the maximum annual limitation on cost sharing (a/k/a out-of-pocket maximum) for 2026 and the IRS issued Rev. Proc. 2024-40 announcing the cost-of-living adjustments to certain...more

Verrill

Final Mental Health Parity Rule Spells Compliance Changes

Verrill on

The long-anticipated final rule under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) was published on September 9, 2024. The MHPAEA prohibits group health plans that provide mental health and substance use...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Practical Pointers for Compliance With New MHPAEA Regulations

Ballard Spahr LLP on

The Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services have published final regulations under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act that prohibit group health plans and health insurers from imposing...more

Fisher Phillips

Open Enrollment Season in the Workplace: 5 Legal Considerations + Employer Takeaways

Fisher Phillips on

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

Epstein Becker & Green

Application of New Mental Health Parity Rules to Provider Network Composition and Reimbursement: Perspective and Analysis

Epstein Becker & Green on

On September 23, 2024, the U.S. Departments of Labor, the Treasury, and Health and Human Services (collectively, the “Departments”) released final rules (the “Final Rules”) that implement requirements under the Mental Health...more

Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP

Understanding the new Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) regulations: What plan sponsors need to know

On September 9, 2024, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (collectively, the Departments) released final regulations under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). The...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Health Plan Hygiene Part 3 – Best Practices for TPA Evaluation, Selection, and Contracting

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

A health plan’s fiduciaries are responsible for administering the health plan. Because most employers are not in the business of administering health benefits, they outsource the day-to-day health plan administration to a...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Landmark Mental Health Parity Final Rule: What Plan Sponsors and Insurers Need to Know

The US Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services (the Departments) recently issued much-anticipated final regulations under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). The newly issued...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

The Case for the Welfare Plan Fiduciary Committee

Recent lawsuits filed against the group health plans of two large US employers underscore the importance of implementing formal welfare benefit plan governance structures that include fiduciary committees comparable to the...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

It’s the Plan Assets, Stupid: Why Group Medical Stop-Loss Captives and Level-Funded Plans Don’t Mix

A question in response to last week’s post on self-funding of employer group health plans assumed that stop-loss coverage under a level-funded plan could be provided under a group captive medical captive. However, it cannot...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Group Medical Captives, Level Funding and US Healthcare Policy

In a recent article in Managed Healthcare Executive, Peter Wehrwein examines the trend of self-funding of group health benefits by smaller employers who used to depend mainly or entirely on fully insured programs....more

Verrill

Health and Welfare Benefit Plan Fiduciary Governance in the Wake of the Johnson & Johnson Lawsuit

Verrill on

For the past few years, we have encouraged plan sponsors to focus on matters of fiduciary governance for their health and welfare benefit plans (see our 2021 blog post). Yet many plan sponsors overlook the fact that the...more

Verrill

Cross-Plan Offsetting in Group Health Plans—The DOL Makes its Position Clear

Verrill on

Under Section 404 of ERISA, plan fiduciaries must act for the exclusive benefit of plan participants and beneficiaries and use plan assets only to provide benefits and defray reasonable expenses of administering the plan. In...more

Alston & Bird

Year-End Health Benefits Roundup 2023

Alston & Bird on

It was a lively year for health benefits. Our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group unpacks 2023, from the end of the COVID-19 emergencies to the much-anticipated Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

The Proposed MHPAEA Regulations’ ‘Meaning of Terms’ Part One: Benefits

This post continues our investigation of proposed regulations under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) issued by the US Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury (the...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

The ‘No More Restrictive’ Requirement for NQTLs Under the Proposed MHPAEA Regulations

We previously reported on proposed regulations under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). If adopted in final form, these regulations would vastly complicate compliance by group health plans and health...more

Verrill

DOL Continues Enforcement of Non-Quantitative Treatment Limitation Requirements

Verrill on

Fifteen months ago, we wrote that the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) had informed Congress that it intended to devote substantial resources to enforcing the new comparative analysis requirement for non-quantitative...more

Morgan Lewis - ML Benefits

Assessing Your Health Plan’s Service Provider Compensation

Based on new ERISA disclosure rules, now is a good time to review the compensation paid to your health plan’s consultant and broker. ERISA Section 408(b)(2)(B) requires brokers and consultants expecting $1,000 or more in...more

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