News & Analysis as of

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Employee Benefits Wellness Programs

Bricker Graydon LLP

Can you Charge Smokers More for Your Health Plan?  

Bricker Graydon LLP on

Several new lawsuits have been filed recently alleging that employers violated HIPAA’s non-discrimination rule by charging higher health insurance premiums to employees who use tobacco products. ...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

Warner Norcross + Judd

Holy Smokes: Is Your Tobacco Surcharge Program Compliant?

Warner Norcross + Judd on

A “tobacco surcharge” is part of many employers’ wellness programs, where the employer charges tobacco users higher health insurance premiums than non-tobacco users. A typical tobacco surcharge program will ask an employee if...more

Fisher Phillips

Rising ERISA Class-Action Lawsuits Over Tobacco Surcharges in Health Plans: What Employers Need to Know + 6 Steps to Stay...

Fisher Phillips on

A wave of ERISA class-action lawsuits is challenging tobacco surcharge programs in employer-sponsored health plans across the U.S. These cases center on potential fiduciary breaches, with plaintiffs arguing that surcharges...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Wellness Apps and Privacy

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Employers looking to enhance their suite of employee benefit programs, and focused on lessons learned during the pandemic on wellbeing, are interested in providing greater access to wellness tools. And, the vendors who...more

Snell & Wilmer

2023 End-of-Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists (Part 1) Health and Welfare

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We are pleased to present our annual End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. This Part 1 covers year-end health and welfare plan issues....more

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

2022 ERISA Welfare Plan Automatic Participant Disclosures Checklist

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC on

We recognize that many companies sponsor ERISA welfare benefit plans and are currently undergoing their open enrollment process and issuing related participant communications. To assist with that process, we have prepared an...more

Holland & Hart - Employers' Lawyers

Employers Consider Raising Premiums for Unvaccinated Workers

Employers are impacted in many ways by the COVID-19 pandemic, not the least of which are employee health and safety. For the last several months, employers have used mostly soft-sell approaches to encourage their employees to...more

Snell & Wilmer

Wellness Program Incentives – New Year, New EEOC Proposed Rules

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For years we have been trying to understand how the EEOC regulates wellness programs. Although we still do not have a complete picture, we are getting closer with the EEOC’s new Notices of Proposed Rulemaking on wellness...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

EEOC Wellness Rules Proposed, Water Bottle Enthusiasts Rejoice

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

Synopsis: For years, employers have struggled to understand what level of incentives in wellness programs might be considered “voluntary” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). ...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

EEOC Issues Long-Awaited Proposed Wellness Program Rules

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued its revamped proposed rules governing employer-sponsored wellness programs. These proposed rules have been a long time coming, with the EEOC’s prior...more

Amundsen Davis LLC

Has Your Wellness Program Had A Check-Up Lately?

Amundsen Davis LLC on

Wellness programs are a popular employee benefit. Whether an employer already has a program in place or is considering implementing one, it should be mindful of the requirements of federal law. The Health Insurance...more

Akerman LLP - Health Law Rx

New Year, New Wellness Program Rules

Employers with established wellness programs that collect health information and/or require a medical exam can no longer rely on the EEOC regulations to justify that incentives provided under their wellness programs are...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Has The Grinch Stolen Wellness Plans This Christmas?

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the country, Employers wanted to help their employees be healthy, But unfortunately some lawyers, and the EEOC- Limited plans that ask about disability…...more

Verrill

December 2018 Client Advisory

Verrill on

This Client Advisory highlights important developments in the law governing employee benefit plans and executive compensation over the past year. It offers insight into what these developments mean for employers and plan...more

Burr & Forman

A Taxonomy of Health Wellness Programs – Part II

Burr & Forman on

A health wellness program is broadly defined as any program of health promotion or disease prevention. My recent article entitled “Taxonomy of Health Wellness Programs – Part I” reviewed the classification of health wellness...more

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

2018 ERISA Welfare Plan Checklist

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC on

We recognize that many of our clients sponsor ERISA welfare benefit plans and are currently undergoing their open enrollment process and issuing related participant communications. To assist our clients with that process, we...more

Burr & Forman

Health Wellness Programs – An Introduction and a Resource

Burr & Forman on

With increasing employee health costs, many employers are adopting or expanding their health wellness programs. In the retirement plan area, some employers are also adopting programs to assist their employees with managing...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

What Now for Wellness?

Foley & Lardner LLP on

If you’re an employer trying to sponsor a wellness program for 2019, then the recent kerfuffle between the AARP and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) affects you. The AARP has challenged the EEOC’s...more

Winstead PC

May Benefits Roundup

Winstead PC on

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule is Finally Dead or Is It? The U.S. Department of Labor (“DoL”) permitted the Fifth Circuit’s decision overruling the fiduciary rule in its entirety on a nationwide basis due to...more

Verrill

Wellness Programs: Where are we now?

Verrill on

Wellness programs are governed by overlapping and, at times, maddeningly inconsistent regulations and agency guidance. Litigation challenging the wellness program rules issued by the EEOC in 2016 has added another layer of...more

Snell & Wilmer

Health Plans – A Pain to Administer But Appreciated by Employees

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Administering health plans is not the easiest task. Such plans are subject to an alphabet soup of laws, including but not limited to ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, COBRA, HIPAA, GINA, Mental Health Parity, the ADA, the...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Federal Court Nixes EEOC's Wellness Rules But Delays Effective Date

In 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission adopted regulations that limit the amount of incentives employers can provide employees to participate in wellness programs under the companies’ group medical insurance...more

Cozen O'Connor

I-22- The Benefits of Benefits: A Roundtable Discussion on Trending Benefits Issues for 2018

Cozen O'Connor on

From tax and health care reform to employee wellness programs to even handheld electronic devices, why should your company be interested in today's hot benefits issues? In today's episode of Employment Law Now, a roundtable...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

ERISA Newsletter - Third Quarter 2017

Proskauer Rose LLP on

Editor's Overview - As we have observed on other occasions, the ERISA class action plaintiffs' bar has, for several years now, honed in on 401(k) plan fiduciaries and their decisions to select and retain investment options...more

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