Retirement plan advisors are hopeful that Congress will work together before the end of the year to pass legislation collectively known as SECURE Act 2.0. This critical legislation would build on the provisions of the SECURE Act of 2019 and help workers better prepare for retirement. SECURE Act 2.0 consists of the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022 that the House passed in March, as well as two bills that Read More

Patients have filed various lawsuits alleging their insurers violated the Parity Act by limiting treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. These lawsuits also involve ERISA claims. Many expect the outcomes of these lawsuits to clarify the standards for a successful parity claim and what remedies plaintiffs can seek under the Parity Act. The following are five parity cases that benefits attorneys and Read More

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a final rule that expands executive pay disclosure requirements for publicly traded U.S. companies, accompanied by a fact sheet summarizing the rule. The rule goes into effect for the 2023 proxy season or fiscal years ending on or after December 16, 2022. It implements requirements established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Read More

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld a permanent injunction prohibiting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from requiring faith-based healthcare providers to perform or provide insurance coverage for abortions or gender-transition procedures. The case is Franciscan Alliance, Inc. v. Becerra, No. 21-11174 (5th Cir. 2022).  In this long-standing dispute over the Read More

Although high-profile racially charged incidents in recent years have led to a surge in corporate pledges and investments toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the forward movement toward these goals has stalled. DEI leaders who have spearheaded this diversity work have focused on three key reasons why well-intentioned DEI initiatives have failed.  Failure to Explicitly Connect DEI Objectives to the Read More

Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in a pending ERISA class action lawsuit to include state law claims by the American Medical Association (AMA), the Medical Society of New Jersey, and the Washington State Medical Association. The original individual plaintiffs were participants in CIGNA-administered health plans and received medical care from physicians in the MultiPlan network.  Physicians in the MultiPlan Read More

The DOL, HHS, and IRS have finalized portions of the regulations concerning the independent dispute resolution (IDR) process of the No Surprises Act. The agencies also have provided a fact sheet summarizing the finalized regulations. Congress enacted the No Surprises Act as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) to address various issues involving surprise medical billing. The major aim of the Read More

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed individual exemptions to prohibited transaction restrictions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The proposed transaction exemptions would cover about $600 million in payments made by 11 benefit pension plans, sponsored by independent licensees of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Read More

A judge in a Massachusetts federal court has dismissed four of the nine claims in a 2021 wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former employee against a lighting company and selected company employees. Among the claims that the judge dismissed were Ahmed Eissa’s allegations that Ledvance LLC discriminated against him based on his sex and ethnicity when they terminated him after he took parental leave for the birth Read More

McDonald’s has settled a class action lawsuit for $156,783.00 over allegations that it failed to provide former employees with sufficient notice of continued health insurance coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Class members consist of 9,000 former employees, all of whom received the deficient COBRA notices between December 15, 2017, and February 9, 2021, and did not opt to Read More