In This Issue:

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Supreme Court’s Decision on Healthcare Reform – What Does This Mean To ERISA Welfare Benefit Plans? ....1

- SELECT CASE SUMMARIES....2

- DICKINSON WRIGHT ERISA ATTORNEYS....5

Excerpt from "Supreme Court's Decision..."

National healthcare has been the subject of political discussion since former President Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign in the 1912 election (which he lost to Woodrow Wilson). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) is the most significant revision of the national healthcare system since the creation of Medicare in the 1960s. Last month’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the individual mandate of the ACA (among other findings) is the latest on this important and divisive topic, but is not the final word by any measure.

Now that the Court has decided that the ACA will remain effective (in large part), employers and plan sponsors should focus on compliance efforts such as drafting and providing uniform benefit summary disclosures for coverage options, and updating payroll deductions to increase the hospital insurance tax and Medicare withholding tax to executives with income greater than $200,000. Further, beginning next year, employee flexible spending accounts will be limited to $2,500, which is generally lower than many plans currently allow. Also, as of next year, employers can no longer offer additional benefits only to highly compensated employees. Although larger employers may have already begun to implement some of these ACA provisions, smaller employers with less administrative resources may only now be focusing on these mandates.