The No Surprises Act: A Cost Saving Opportunity for Employer Plan Sponsors
The world of health benefits is constantly evolving. Recent policy shifts and legislative developments are expected to impact the economic landscape and have significant implications for employer plan sponsors, insurers,...more
Our “health plan hygiene” series has focused on steps that fiduciaries of employer-sponsored group health plans can take to ensure they meet their fiduciary responsibilities. This issue has been brought to the forefront...more
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
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently entered into a settlement agreement with a New York-based insurer and third-party administrator (“Company”) of employer group health plans governed by the Employee Retirement...more
Most employers know that if a group health plan provides mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits in any of six specified classifications, the plan must provide MH/SUD benefits in all specified...more
How much would you get back in your budget if you could save up to 10% on your medical and Rx benefits costs? Employee benefits are the second largest budget item in employee compensation, with medical benefits consuming the...more
Happy Summer from the K&C ESOPs & Employee Benefits practice group. We’ve compiled a short list of employee benefits updates from the second quarter of 2022....more
Permissible Flexibility under Code Section 125 Pursuant to IRS Notice 2021-15 Notice 2021-15 offered plan sponsors the flexibility to adopt any of the following options despite the longstanding rules under Section 125 of the...more
Last month, we advised readers of this blog to consider efforts to formalize the fiduciary governance of their health and welfare benefit plans. In that post, we described some of the reasons that employers have historically...more
Congress’s passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (“CAA”) imposes a series of new recordkeeping and disclosure obligations on plan sponsors, as well as extending and expanding upon COVID-19 related relief. Less than...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
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
New rules published last month likely require your employer health plan to phase-in certain disclosures over a three-year period beginning in one year: 1. January 1, 2022 (three files must be disclosed): For plan years...more
Employers across the country are currently considering what actions to put in place in light of the potential spread of COVID-19 (the coronavirus). Many employers offer their employees high-deductible health plans that can...more
In response to the Coronavirus (“COVID-19”), the Internal Revenue Service advised that a health plan that otherwise satisfies the requirements to be a High Deductible Health Plan (“HDHP”) under section 223(c)(2)(A) will not...more
The IRS issued guidance on March 11 that clears the way for employers to offer employees covered by a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) testing and treatment for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) with no deductible or at...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Employer subsidized healthcare is one of the largest cost centers for small and large businesses. This post provides a primer on what to do if you suspect that your healthcare costs are rising because your...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Eighth Circuit upheld dismissal of Title VII claims challenging an employee benefit plan’s blanket transgender exclusion because the exclusion impacted the employee’s transgender son, not the employee....more
If you had at least 50 but less than 100 full-time employees (on an aggregated basis, including full-time equivalents) in an average month in 2014, then you are an ACA “Applicable Large Employer” with ALE reporting...more