After the U.S. Department of Labor expressed concerns about the quality of audits in employee benefit plans, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) released a Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS 136) to address those concerns. Originally slated to go into effect in 2020, AICPA delayed implementing the audit rules for one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, SAS 136 will apply to Read More

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published new guidance in January 2022 reaffirming the definition of sex discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). HHS states that statutes prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability apply to all health programs or related activities receiving federal funding. More specifically, the HHS Read More

A California federal magistrate judge has awarded over $20 million in attorney fees and costs to class counsel in its ERISA suit win over United Behavioral Health (UBH), a UnitedHealth Group unit. Although the magistrate judge slightly reduced their request, the award largely satisfied the class counsel's request for fees and costs. Justification of the Attorneys’ Fees and Costs Awards The court justified the Read More

Various ERISA cases are pending at the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts that could significantly affect ERISA law. Here is an overview of the cases you may wish to monitor in the upcoming months. High Court Could Consider Challenge to State Automatic-IRA Programs California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, or CalSavers, requires California workers to have a portion of their earnings Read More

The following are Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding the implementation of various components of the No Surprises Act (NSA) of Division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA 2021). The FAQs also cover implementing regulations published in the Federal Register on July 13, 2021, as part of interim final rules with comment period, entitled “Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part I” and on Read More

As it relates to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) employer reporting process, good faith compliance is soon ending. Although the IRS provided some relief related to the deadlines for delivering ACA reporting forms to employees, it has reiterated what employers had feared: good faith relief is ending. Until now, every year since federal law has required ACA reporting forms, the IRS took the position that it would not Read More

In Waldner v. Natixis Investment Managers LP et al., filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, a federal judge refused to grant the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case in December of 2021. Plaintiff plan participants filed the lawsuit as a proposed class action alleging Natixis Investment Managers LP (“Natixis”), a French corporate and investment bank, of violating ERISA and federal Read More

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry. The primary purpose of ERISA is to protect the individuals who participate in these plans. From the circuit courts to the Supreme Court, there was no shortage of cases involving employee health plans in 2021. For Read More

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry. The primary purpose of ERISA is to protect the individuals who participate in these plans. From the U.S. Circuit Courts to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), there was no shortage of cases involving Read More

A putative class of roughly 101,000 participants in multiple retirement plans for Koch employees, reached a $4 million settlement with Koch Industries Inc., Koch Business Solutions LP, and the Koch Benefits Administrative Committee (“Koch”), in July 2021.Almost six months later, in December 2021,  federal judge in Georgia approved a $1 million award of attorney’s fees to lawyers from the law firms of Nichols Kaster Read More