Compliance Updates

On May 24, 2019, the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices’ Office for Civ­il Rights (OCR) released a pro­posed rule to revise its reg­u­la­tions under the […]

On Dec. 14, 2018, the U.S. Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Texas declared that the ACA indi­vid­ual man­date is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and declared that the […]

On August 20, 2018, the Depart­ment of Labor (DOL) post­ed the Asso­ci­a­tion Health Plans ERISA Com­pli­ance Assis­tance fact sheet.

Short-term, lim­it­ed-dura­tion insur­ance is a type of health insur­ance cov­er­age designed to fill tem­po­rary gaps in cov­er­age when an indi­vid­ual is transitioning […]

In Jan­u­ary 2018, the EEOC asked the court to recon­sid­er the por­tion of the court’s order that required the EEOC to issue new pro­posed rules by August 31, […]

Under the ACA, applic­a­ble large employ­ers are required to offer health ben­e­fits to their full-time employ­ees and report on the health cov­er­age they offer.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act elim­i­nates the busi­ness deduc­tion for qual­i­fied mass tran­sit and park­ing ben­e­fits start­ing in 2018.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act includes a new fed­er­al tax cred­it for employ­ers that pro­vide paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave to their employees.

Inter­im Final Rules were released and became effec­tive on Octo­ber 6, 2017, allow­ing a greater num­ber of employ­ers to opt out of pro­vid­ing con­tra­cep­tion to […]

Novem­ber was a busy month in the employ­ee ben­e­fits world.

On the evening of Octo­ber 12, 2017, Pres­i­dent Trump announced that cost shar­ing reduc­tions for low income Amer­i­cans in rela­tion to the Patient Pro­tec­tion and […]

The order directs var­i­ous fed­er­al agen­cies to explore options relat­ing to asso­ci­a­tion health plans, short term lim­it­ed-dura­tion cov­er­age, and health […]

Report­ing is required by employ­ers with 50 or more full-time (or full-time equiv­a­lent) employ­ees, insur­ers, or spon­sors of self-fund­ed health plans, on health […]

A depen­dent care flex­i­ble spend­ing account (DCFSA) is a pre-tax ben­e­fit account used to pay for eli­gi­ble depen­dent care services.

The COBRA pay­ment process is sub­ject to var­i­ous rules in terms of grace peri­ods, noti­fi­ca­tion, pre­mi­um pay­ment meth­ods, and treat­ment of insignificant […]

A health flex­i­ble spend­ing account (FSA) is a pre-tax account used to pay for out-of-pock­et health care costs for a par­tic­i­pant as well as a participant’s […]

The Con­sol­i­dat­ed Omnibus Bud­get Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Act of 1985 (COBRA) allows qual­i­fied ben­e­fi­cia­ries who lose health ben­e­fits due to a qual­i­fy­ing event to […]

On June 22, 2017, the U.S. Sen­ate released a “Dis­cus­sion Draft” of the “Bet­ter Care Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Act of 2017” (BCRA), aimed at “repeal­ing and […]

The Depart­ment of Labor is request­ing com­ment on a draft mod­el form to request infor­ma­tion regard­ing non­quan­ti­ta­tive treat­ment limitations.

The rule amends stan­dards relat­ing to spe­cial enroll­ment peri­ods, guar­an­teed avail­abil­i­ty, and the tim­ing of the annu­al open enroll­ment peri­od in the […]

A Sum­ma­ry of Ben­e­fits and Cov­er­age (SBC) is four page (dou­ble-sided) com­mu­ni­ca­tion required by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. It must con­tain spe­cif­ic infor­ma­tion, in […]

Enti­ties such as employ­ers with group health plans that pro­vide pre­scrip­tion drug cov­er­age to indi­vid­u­als that are eli­gi­ble for Medicare Part D have two major […]

On Feb­ru­ary 17, 2017, the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices’ Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices (CMS) issued a pro­posed rule to sta­bi­lize the […]

Under the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act (ACA), indi­vid­u­als are required to have health insur­ance while applic­a­ble large employ­ers (ALEs) are […]

On Decem­ber 20, 2016, the Depart­ment of Labor, Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices, and the Trea­sury issued FAQs About Afford­able Care Act Implementation […]