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Medicare Benefit Plan Sponsors

Bricker Graydon LLP

Why You Can’t Kick High Claimants Off Your Health Insurance

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If your health insurance premiums have gone up again, you are not alone.  For that reason, we frequently get questions from clients on whether there is anything they can do to get high claimants off of their plans....more

Venable LLP

REMINDER: October 15 Is the Deadline for Prescription Drug Notices and the Extended Deadline for Form 5500s

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Does your company's health plan provide prescription drug coverage? If so, you have until October 15, 2024 to send a notice to individuals who are enrolled in Medicare Part A or Part B and are eligible for the company's...more

Venable LLP

2025 Changes to Medicare Part D Will Impact Group Health Plans' Creditable Coverage Determination

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The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 made significant design changes to Medicare Part D effective January 1, 2025. The changes will cause an increase in the actuarial value of Medicare Part D coverage, which will impact...more

Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL

Benefits Monthly Minute - August 2024

The August Monthly Minute highlights new IRS guidance addressing student loan matching programs, HHS’s increases to civil monetary penalties and Form 5330 paper filing updates....more

McDermott Will & Schulte

The ACA 1557 Final Regulations: Plans and Plan Sponsors as Covered Entities

In a recent On the Subject (available here), we reported on the impact of the final rule (final rule) interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on self-funded group health plans that contract with licensed...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

How Employers Need to Prepare for the End of the COVID Public Health Emergency and National Emergency

On January 30, 2023, the Biden administration announced its intention to make final extensions of both the COVID-19 National Emergency (NE) and the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) through May 11, 2023, at which point...more

Mintz - Health Care Viewpoints

CMS Issues Additional Flexibilities to the ACO REACH Model’s Benefit Enhancements

As Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and providers gear up for the start of the new ACO REACH Model in 2023, CMS recently issued helpful policy updates to the model’s benefit enhancements (BEs). Under BEs, CMS waives...more

Venable LLP

REMINDER: October 15 Is the Deadline for Prescription Drug Notices and the Extended Deadline for Form 5500s

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Does your company's health plan provide prescription drug coverage? If so, you have until October 15, 2022 to send a notice to individuals who are enrolled in Medicare Part A or Part B and are eligible for the company's...more

Venable LLP

March 1 Deadlines for Group Health Plans

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March 1 brings two annual deadlines for employers that sponsor a group health plan for their employees. Medicare Part D - Creditable Coverage Disclosure to CMS - An employer with a group health plan that provides...more

Fisher Phillips

Don’t Forget Medicare Prescription Drug Reporting to CMS

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Most employers who offer plans that include prescription drug coverage are acutely aware of the requirement to notify individuals as to the creditable status of that coverage before October 15 each year. However, many are...more

Fisher Phillips

The Cost of Employee Benefits Non-Compliance Just Went Up . . . Again

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The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) just announced increased penalty amounts for entities who violate the privacy, security, and breach notification rules under the Health Insurance Portability and...more

Harris Beach Murtha PLLC

Reminder: Don’t Forget to Timely Furnish the Required Notice of Expiration of the ARP COBRA Premium Subsidy Period!

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the ARP, enacted on March 11, 2021) provides a temporary 100% COBRA premium subsidy to any assistance eligible individual (AEI) who loses employer-sponsored group health coverage due to a...more

Smith Anderson

ARPA COBRA Subsidy's Impact on Employer Health Plans

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The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) provides temporary COBRA continuation coverage premium assistance for certain eligible qualified beneficiaries. On April 7, 2021, the Department of Labor issued a FAQ and model...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

Some Family Members May Not Be Eligible for the ARPA COBRA Premium Subsidy

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”) includes a 100% COBRA premium subsidy for “assistance eligible individuals,” for periods of coverage occurring between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021, as described in...more

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

New COVID-19 Relief Law Includes Full COBRA Premium Subsidy

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), which became law on March 11, 2021, provides a 100 percent subsidy of premiums under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) beginning on April 1, 2021, through...more

Proskauer - Employee Benefits & Executive...

COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Includes Six Months of Free COBRA Health Coverage

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”), which was just passed by Congress and will be sent to President Biden for signature, includes an opportunity for free COBRA coverage for a six-month period from April through...more

Ervin Cohen & Jessup LLP

U.S. Department of Labor Issues New Model COBRA Notices and Extends COBRA Deadlines

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) issued new model COBRA Notices primarily to highlight that an individual may enroll in Medicare instead of COBRA continuation coverage after his or her group health plan coverage...more

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP

The LHD/ERISA Advisor: Eighth Circuit Upholds Payment for Out-of-Network Air Ambulance Flight at 150 Percent of Medicare Rates

In Mitchell v. Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.D., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 8818 (8th Cir. Mar. 20, 2020), the Eighth Circuit upheld the payment of 150% of Medicare rates for an out-of-network air ambulance flight, although the...more

Groom Law Group, Chartered

Year-End Challenges and Opportunities: Congress Passes SECURE Act, Caddy Tax Repeal, and More

On Thursday, December 19, the Senate passed two spending bills to fund the government through September 30, 2020, one of which (H.R. 1865, the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020” or the “Act”) contains the...more

Epstein Becker & Green

The Proposed Expansion of Health Reimbursement Arrangements: Is This a Game Changer for Employers?

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On October 22, 2018, in perhaps the most significant guidance resulting from President Trump’s 2017 Executive Order 13813, “Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States” (“2017 Executive Order”), the...more

Mintz - Health Care Viewpoints

CMS Proposes to Reduce Payments for New Drugs under Medicare Part B

In an attempt to lower drug prices, CMS released a proposed rule last week to reduce payments for new drugs under the Part B program. CMS has proposed that effective January 1, 2019, for new drugs and biologicals that are...more

Mintz - Health Care Viewpoints

Proposed Medicare Advantage and Part D Regulations for CY 2019 – CMS Takes Aim at Drug Prices

The rising cost of drugs in the U.S. is frequently in the news. So it is not surprising that in its contract year 2019 Proposed Medicare Advantage and Part D Regulations (Proposed Rule), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...more

Winstead PC

Employee Classifications, Employer Shared Responsibility Tax and Medicare Collide

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Some employers have attempted to manage their risks related to the employer shared responsibility tax (a/k/a the pay or play penalty) by placing employees into classifications and indicating that particular classifications of...more

Miles & Stockbridge P.C.

2016 Plan Contribution and Compensation Limits; Medicare COLA to Remain the Same

In October, two newly released guidances from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration confirm that the United States cost of living did not increase enough to warrant a cost-of-living adjustment...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

The ERISA Litigation Newsletter - August 2015

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Editor's Overview - As the summer draws to a close, this month's Newsletter previews three cases that the U.S. Supreme Court already has agreed to hear that ought to be of particular interest to ERISA plan sponsors and...more

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