A group of mostly Republican senators has issued a resolution of disapproval to repeal the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) new rule that expands who qualifies as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Two Republican representatives introduced a similar measure in the U.S. House of Representatives. These members of Congress criticize the new rule as damaging Americans’ ability to save Read More

A split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the ruling of a federal district court in a federal anti-discrimination law case involving transgender healthcare rights. The Court found that a Georgia county's health insurance plan violated Title VII when it denied a plan participant coverage for gender-reassignment surgery. The case is Anna Lange v. Houston County, Georgia, et al., Read More

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a final rule that modifies the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (“the Privacy Rule”) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The purpose of this rule is to support reproductive healthcare privacy in the post-Dobbs era for both patients and healthcare providers. Although the changes Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued a final rule revoking its Association Health Plan (AHP) regulations. The agency expects to replace these regulations with a stricter version that provides more employee protections. The group health plan market consists of small and large group markets based on the employer's size. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Read More

The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury, recently issued Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 Implementation (Part 67). These FAQs address certain issues in implementing Title I provisions (the No Surprises Act) because of a Texas federal court decision (TMA III). A major purpose of the FAQs is to inform plans, insurers, and Read More

A Michigan federal district court judge declined to dismiss most of a suit alleging that the trustee of a steel company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) permitted it to buy $60 million in stock at an inflated price. According to the court’s ruling, the plaintiff adequately supported his claim that the plan trustee Capital Trustees LLC and SAC Ventures Inc. violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act Read More

Just a week before a bench trial was scheduled to begin, Salesforce reached a settlement with as many as 50,000 of its employees in a class action lawsuit over its 401(k) plan. The San Francisco-based software company faced claims of breach of its fiduciary duties under ERISA for failing to replace costly and underperforming investment options in the 401(k) plan. The workers had sought over $5 million in damages, Read More

Several important benefits cases are pending before various U.S. Courts of Appeals. Benefits attorneys should look out for the upcoming appellate arguments in these cases. Tanika Parker et al. v. Tenneco Inc. et al., case number 23-1857, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit In this class action lawsuit, workers allege that their automotive company employers mismanaged their 401(k) plan by charging Read More

Texas-based insurance industry plaintiffs, including a nonprofit trade group, have filed the first lawsuit to challenge the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recently issued final regulations that broaden the definition of fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The regulations expand the scope of a fiduciary to include many forms of advice by investment professionals and amend three sets Read More

The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury, along with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), released FAQs about the implementation of Title I of Division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 or the No Surprises Act (“the Act”). Questions have arisen about implementing the Act due to the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Read More