During the COVID-19 national emergency, the claims and appeals deadlines for various employee benefit plans were extended by disregarding the COVID-19 “outbreak period,” which ends 60 days after the national emergency ends unless federal agencies announce another end date. As of April 10, 2023, the COVID-19 national emergency has ended, putting the outbreak period end date on June 10, 2023. However, the U.S. Read More

A 2023 Urban Institutes research report concludes that the 2020 No Surprises Act (NSA) has achieved the goal Congress expressed in passing the legislation: price transparency in medical billing to protect consumers. Researchers creating the report interviewed 32 regulators and stakeholders representing hospitals, payors, billing companies, and consumers. They also analyzed relevant data to measure the effectiveness Read More

In a recent ALM Benefits Pro article, Lindsay Barnard and Duke Janssen, two Alegeus executives, discussed the disconnect between what employers and employees find most important regarding health savings accounts (HSAs) and lifestyle spending accounts (LSAs). Alegeus is a leading provider of SaaS-based benefit funding and payment solutions. Health Savings Accounts Barnard, who leads product management for HSAs Read More

Secure 2.0, which Congress passed last year, contains a wide range of retirement provisions that benefit various parties. For example, employees may benefit from this legislation if employers utilize its provisions to provide new financial wellness programs, such as emergency savings accounts and Starter K plans. Emergency Savings Accounts An emergency savings account is fundamental to any financial wellness Read More

The purpose of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule was to protect the medical records and protected health information (PHI) of individuals. As a result, insurance companies provide extremely sparse data to employers with less than 250 employees, in the form of large claims data at the end of the year. Insurance companies provide this limited data to prevent HIPAA violations Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. Department of Treasury, recently issued FAQs concerning the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), after the decision in Braidwood Management v. Becerra, which invalidated portions of the ACA. Coverage of Preventive Services Public Read More

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently took a second look at allegations that a defined contribution plan’s fiduciaries had breached the duty of prudence under ERISA in Hughes v. Northwestern University, 63 F.4th 615, 2023 WL 2607921 (7th Cir. 2023). The plan participants claimed that plan fiduciaries breached the duty of prudence by allowing excessive recordkeeping fees to accumulate, partly Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has requested that Congress allocate $5 million and 22 full-time employees in its 2024 budget to create a program to locate missing retirement plan participants. In fiscal year 2021, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered more than $1.5 billion in lost benefits for over 16,000 elderly retirees and their beneficiaries after their retirement plans lost track of Read More

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the U.S. Department of Treasury recently released FAQs concerning the implementation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). These FAQS are in response to the Biden Read More

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has approved the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act (S.1339). The bill now heads to the full Senate for a vote. The bill aims to stop deceptive and anticompetitive pricing schemes by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Currently, three PBMs control 80% of the prescription drug market, and these intermediaries in the drug supply pricing chain Read More