IBM has notified its employees that it will suspend its current match and 1% automatic contribution to employee 401(k) plans as of January 1, 2024. In lieu of contributing to a 401(k) plan, the industry leader will provide a monthly account credit toward a new Retirement Benefit Account (RBA). Employees also will receive a one-time salary increase to offset the difference between the current 401(k) contribution and Read More

In late October, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reached a settlement agreement with a medical management company based in Massachusetts over alleged HIPAA violations. Under the settlement terms, the company will pay $100,000 and comply with a three-year corrective action plan (CAP). The company is a HIPAA business associate (BA) that provides services to HIPAA-covered entities (CEs), Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration issued a letter rejecting a request for delays in the rulemaking process concerning the expansion of the definition of "fiduciary" under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), American Retirement Association (ARA), and various other financial groups previously Read More

Seventeen healthcare stakeholder groups have come together to support The Value in Health Care Act, a bill that a bipartisan coalition reintroduced in Congress this summer. The bill supports a shift in the medical care industry from the current fee-for-service model to an accountable care model, which assigns compensation to medical providers based on health outcomes. Instead of incentivizing physicians to prescribe Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a proposed rule that would include subjecting more investment advisors to ERISA's fiduciary rule, including its strict conflict of interest provisions. The proposed rule comes five years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down the DOL’s 2018 final rule defining who qualifies as an ERISA fiduciary. According to the DOL, the purpose of the Read More

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Department of Treasury’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) have issued a proposed rule on the federal Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process under the No Surprises Act (NSA). The Read More

An Illinois judge has denied a motion by Blue Cross Blue Shield to dismiss a same-sex discrimination lawsuit concerning coverage for couples undergoing fertility treatments. In denying the insurance company’s motion to dismiss, the judge found that the company may have denied the woman coverage under a policy that unlawfully discriminates against LGBTQ couples. The case is Murphy v. Health Care Service Corp., Case Read More

Three federal agencies – the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – recently issued FAQs (Part 62) on the “qualified payment amount” (QPA) under the No Surprises Act. The agencies also published guidance on the phased reopening of the independent dispute resolution (IDR) portal. FAQs on Surprise Billing QPA The issues in Read More

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed a district court decision awarding former NFL running back Michael Cloud higher disability benefits and back pay. Nonetheless, the panel agreed with many of the lower court’s findings, noting the NFL retirement plan’s “disturbing” and aggressively unfair treatment of former players who had suffered severely incapacitating on-the-field injuries Read More

A Massachusetts federal court has given preliminary approval to a $61 million settlement in a pending lawsuit concerning General Electric’s (GE) alleged mismanagement of retirement savings invested in a proprietary fund. The settlement would partially reimburse about 200,000 current and former participants in GE’s 401(k) plan for losses incurred since September 2011 because of GE Asset Management’s comparatively poor Read More