By Kellie Mejdrich Law360 (September 1, 2023, 7:22 PM EDT) -- In September, federal appeals courts have set oral arguments on several important employee benefits disputes from workers claiming violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and a D.C. Circuit panel will be asked to determine whether Rite Aid violated labor law when changing union retirees' health benefits. Here are five appellate Read More

ATLANTA, July 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Boutique ERISA and employment law firm Hall Benefits Law (HBL), serving employer plan sponsors and benefit service provider clients in 40 states, is proud to announce its national certification as a Women's Business Enterprise by the Greater Women's Business Council, a regional certifying partner of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). WBENC Certification is Read More

By Kellie Mejdrich Law360 (June 16, 2023, 2:52 PM EDT) -- Congress and the Biden Administration took several key actions that made an impact on employee benefits policy in the first six months of 2023, including advancing federal legislation cracking down on pharmacy benefit managers, ending emergency designations tied to the coronavirus pandemic, and proposing rules for group health plans on contraceptive Read More

By Anne Tyler Hall, Grant Shuman, and Tim Kennedy* INTRODUCTION: THE PBM LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY FIRESTORM Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their fee generation methods have been controversial for some time. More recently, however, PBMs have begun receiving considerable scrutiny from all sides. Both the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Senate have opened parallel probes of ‘‘alleged anticompetitive Read More

By Philip Koehler and Anne Tyler Hall* Expanding access to retirement plans for the American workforce has been a recurring policy objective of federal pension reform at least as far back as the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (‘‘ERISA’’). The legislative history of ERISA and its progeny has laid down an historical record of the challenges Congress faced to ensure that Read More

By Anne Tyler Hall and Phil Koehler (March 29, 2023) The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement, or SECURE, Act 2.0, enacted at the end of 2022, ushered in some of the most sweeping changes for retirement plans and individual retirement accounts since the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security of 1974, as amended. Some of the changes are immediate while others become effective in 2024 Read More

By Grant Shuman, Tim Kennedy and Anne Tyler Hall (March 22, 2023, 5:36 PM EDT) The No Surprises Act, enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and made effective Jan. 1, 2022, was designed to protect patients from surprise bills for emergency services at out-of-network facilities — or out- of-network providers at in-network facilities — holding patients liable only for in-network Read More

ATLANTA, GA – Serving employers in thirty-nine states, boutique ERISA law firm Hall Benefits Law (HBL) welcomes Los Angeles-based attorney Alex M. Brucker to the Firm as Of Counsel. Brucker boasts almost fifty years as an employee benefits attorney, lecturer, and author, having begun his career in benefits law in 1974, the same year ERISA was enacted. He has been recognized seventeen consecutive years Read More

Law360 (March 3, 2023, 9:57 PM EST) - Congress recently passed legislation seeking to nix a U.S. Department of Labor rule meant to help retirement plan managers factor things like climate change and social justice into investment decisions, a move that attorneys say highlights the legal risks for plans that offer funds devoted to socially conscious investing. The House and Senate passed resolutions on Feb. 28 and Read More

Law 360 (November 18, 2022, 5:44 PM EST) -- The U.S. Department of Labor has vowed to continue its aggressive enforcement of a law requiring employer health plans to provide equal coverage for mental health and addiction treatments and other types of medical care, despite expected political pressure from the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives. The Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity Read More