In light of the March 30 Braidwood Mgmt. Inc. v. Becerra decision, the Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of the Treasury (the “departments”) have issued FAQ guidance on how the...more
4/21/2023
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Health Insurance ,
New Guidance ,
Preventive Health Care ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Wellness Programs
With the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) set to end on May 11, 2023, the Department of Labor, Department of the Treasury, and Department of Health and Human Services (the “departments”) have published FAQs explaining...more
4/14/2023
/ Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ,
COBRA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Deadlines ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Executive Compensation ,
Medicaid ,
Public Health Emergency ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
The Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule that explicitly allows—but does not require—retirement plan fiduciaries to take climate change and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2021-02 to further delay enforcement of Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 (PTE 2020-02), which sets forth several requirements that financial...more
10/28/2021
/ Broker-Dealer ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Financial Institutions ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Investment ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investors ,
IRA Rollovers ,
PTEs ,
Retirement Plan
The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management have issued "Requirements Related to Surprise Billing; Part I," an interim final rule to implement the No...more
7/9/2021
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Health Care Providers ,
Health Insurance ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
New Rules ,
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ,
Out of Network Provider ,
Physicians ,
Surprise Medical Bills ,
U.S. Treasury
Group health plans and insurers have been required since 2008 to ensure that any “nonquantitative treatment limitations” (NQTLs) imposed on mental health or substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits are comparable and no more...more
5/19/2021
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Compliance ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
IRS ,
Mental Health ,
Noncompliance ,
NQTLs ,
State Legislatures ,
State Regulators ,
Substance Abuse
As we discussed in a previous article, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), provided premium assistance and an extended election period under COBRA and similar state laws for “assistance eligible individuals” (AEIs)....more
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has released a short statement announcing that it will not enforce the final rule on “Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments” that it published on November 13, 2020. The statement also...more
In EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, the Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a critical interpretation of prior guidance that extended certain deadlines for employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries due to...more
In response to ongoing pleas for guidance, the Department of Labor (DOL) has published an informal outline expressing its views on how retirement plan administrators should be addressing missing or unresponsive participants....more
The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act, recently passed as part of the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” has significantly extended the tax exclusions for employer-paid student loan repayment assistance...more
1/7/2021
/ CARES Act ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
IRS ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Taxable Income ,
Relief Measures ,
Student Loans ,
Tax Credits ,
Trump Administration
The recently enacted COVID-19 Related Tax Relief Act of 2020 and the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020, both of which are part of the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021,” includes the following...more
1/4/2021
/ Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
CARES Act ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
IRS ,
New Legislation ,
Relief Measures ,
Retirement Plan ,
Trump Administration
The Departments of Labor (DOL) and Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Treasury have finalized a rule for grandfathered group health plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without making any substantive changes from...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a final rule to revise its existing rule regarding financial factors in selecting plan investments. We discussed the proposed rule in an earlier article, and this article provides a...more
The Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury have issued a proposed rule for grandfathered group health plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The proposed rule provides greater...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a notice of a proposed class exemption from certain prohibited transaction restrictions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC)...more
The Department of Labor (DOL), joined and coordinated in part by the Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, and Department of Health and Human Services, has released several documents providing deadline extensions...more
The President recently signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or “CARES Act.” The CARES Act is primarily a stimulus package that addresses the current coronavirus crisis, and it includes...more
On June 21, 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a mandate vacating the controversial fiduciary rule issued by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) in 2016. The mandate follows the court’s opinion issued on March 15,...more
6/27/2018
/ Appeals ,
Best Interest Contract Exemptions ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary Rule ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Individual Retirement Account (IRA) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Investment Management ,
Judicial Mandates ,
Retirement Funds ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Transactions ,
Vacated
With relatively few exceptions, administrators of employee benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) have enjoyed success enforcing forum selection clauses in cases across the country. As...more
Until recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Labor (DOL), and federal courts seemed to agree that a retirement plan established and maintained by a church-affiliated organization generally qualified...more