Section 203 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), which became law on December 27, 2020, requires group health plans to evaluate compliance with the existing rules governing nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA).  The MHPAEA requires group health plans that apply NQTLs to mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits Read More

The recent increase in litigation over retirement plans and, specifically, the fees those plans are being charged for administration and management, has many companies concerned about what they need to do to protect the plans they manage. Two recent federal district court rulings illustrate the necessity for plan sponsors to have a prudent decision-making process in place to successfully defend against excessive fee Read More

Under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015, the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) are required to make annual inflation adjustments to ERISA violation penalties by January 15 of each year. The recently released retirement plan penalties for 2021 are as follows: DOL Penalties The increased penalties apply to violations where a penalty is Read More

In accordance with an executive order issued by President Biden on January 28, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is opening a COVID-19-related special enrollment period (SEP) for uninsured consumers to obtain health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The new COVID-19-related SEP is in effect from February 15 - May 15, 2021, for the 36 states that use the Read More

In general, employers are permitted to require that their employees be vaccinated if no disability or religious exemption applies. With two COVID-19 vaccines already authorized by the FDA for emergency use and more on the horizon, employers need to be aware of how this will affect their group health plans.  In October 2020, the Trump administration released an interim final regulation (IFR) governing coverage of Read More

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) was signed into law on December 27, 2020. This major funding bill included the COVID-Related Tax Relief Act of 2020 (COVIDTRA) and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 (TCDTR), which contained the following provisions affecting retirement plans: Money Purchase Pension Plan Distributions May Qualify as Coronavirus-Related Distributions The CAA Read More

Plaintiffs in an ERISA lawsuit against pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs) received another setback recently when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court ruling that defendants Anthem, Inc., and Express Scripts, Inc., did not violate ERISA’s fiduciary obligations because neither defendant acted as an ERISA fiduciary when entering into a contractual agreement that led to higher prescription costs for Read More

On December 18, 2020, the IRS released final regulations under 162(m) of the IRS Code to implement the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes as well as provide guidance to employers. Section 162(m) focuses on publicly held corporations and deductions for compensation paid to covered employees. This section does not allow these corporations to deduct compensation that exceeds $1 million per year. The TCJA changes the Read More

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed into law on December 27, 2020, did not extend the December 31, 2020, expiration date for the paid leave requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). Therefore, FFCRA-covered employers are no longer required to provide emergency paid sick or family leave under federal law. However, the Act did extend the FFCRA tax credits for covered Read More