On Labor Day fifty years ago, September 2, 1974, President Ford signed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) into law. It is a combination of tax and labor law incorporating trust law like fiduciary...more
The IRS has announced increased annual limits for retirement and other benefit plans for 2024. While the increases for 2024 are smaller than we’ve seen in prior years, they still may have a significant impact on plans and...more
Employers, at least for now, may have some relief from some of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements to cover preventive care services without cost sharing under a nationwide injunction issued March 30, 2023, by a...more
The Biden administration has announced its intent to end the COVID-19 National Emergency (NE) and the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11, 2023 (read our prior article for more information). In response to the...more
The IRS has announced the 2021 dollar limits impacting retirement plans and IRAs. The agency also issued welfare plan limits, as well as ACA penalties. The chart below summarizes these 2021 figures along with the...more
It is hard to find a sector of the American workforce that has not been affected by the COVID-19 emergency. Employees are being asked to work from home if they are able, businesses are being forced to close, and employers are...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, the Trump Administration issued its proposed Notice of Benefit & Payment Parameter for 2021 regulations....more
The U.S. healthcare industry remains at a crossroads. The healthcare reform legislation passed under President Barack Obama in 2010, officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) but widely referred...more
Effective January 1, 2020, employers may put aside pre-tax funds into a health reimbursement arrangement (“HRA”) that can be used by an employee to pay for premiums and other out-of-pocket costs related to the purchase of an...more
On June 24, 2019, the President issued his Executive Order on Improving Price and Quality Transparency in American Healthcare to Put Patients First. The Executive Order directs regulators to take action to improve healthcare...more
Once upon a time, our retirement plan worries were primarily generated by the U.S. Department of Labor (“DoL”) or the Internal Revenue Service and their regulatory and enforcement efforts. In more recent times we have seen...more
The chart below compares key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the American Health Care Act (AHCA) and the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). This chart is current as of July 13, 2017, and as of that date,...more
One of the hottest benefit trends in 2017 is the adoption of free or low-cost “telemedicine” programs to provide employees easy and affordable access to medical care. However, you need to proceed with caution when introducing...more
Earlier this week, on March 6, 2017, House Republicans released their proposals to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as "Obamacare." The proposals would remove the...more
The health savings account (“HSA”) has become, since its creation in 2003, an increasingly popular option for employers to subsidize employee group health costs. Employees with HSAs can save money, on a tax-free basis, for...more
In the uncertain atmosphere surrounding the process of ‘repealing’ and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there are some clues as to what we can expect to come next, at least with regard with the health insurance...more
The recent Republican election victories appear to ensure that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) days are numbered. But with nearly a fifth of the U.S. economy, and the health care coverage for some tens of millions of U.S....more
On November 8, 2016, the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) became more uncertain. Republicans in Congress have been working to repeal the ACA since it was passed in 2010, and now, with control of...more
This week, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2016-28, which updated the plan limits for health savings accounts and high deductible health plans. These limits, effective for 2017 calendar years, were virtually unchanged from...more
The IRS recently released the final forms and instructions for information reporting under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). The final forms and instructions will be used for reporting in 2016 concerning 2015 coverage. The...more
Editor's Overview - As the summer draws to a close, this month's Newsletter previews three cases that the U.S. Supreme Court already has agreed to hear that ought to be of particular interest to ERISA plan sponsors and...more
As employers and plans prepare for 2016 open enrollment, they must be sure to address in their benefit design and with their third party vendors the new embedded out-of-pocket maximum limitations on individuals that were...more
The “Cadillac Tax” of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. It imposes a 40% excise tax on any “excess benefit” provided to an employee. An excess benefit is the excess,...more
In this volume, we have collected the 52 weekly blog posts that comprise the series entitled, The Affordable Care Act—Countdown to Compliance for Employers. The series appeared in the Mintz Levin Employment Matters Blog...more
What do all of these acronyms stand for and why do employers and human resource professionals care? These acronyms stand for statutory requirements which apply to employer-provided health plans and stiff penalties can apply...more