On September 23, 2024, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) issued a final rule (“Final Rule”) implementing amendments made by the Consolidated...more
The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (collectively, the “Tri-Departments”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on August 3, 2023, to propose new regulations for the...more
8/23/2024
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Health Insurance ,
Mental Health ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
MHPAEA ,
Plan Administrators ,
Substance Abuse
The SECURE 2.0 Act revolutionized retirement planning by simplifying and expanding retirement and health plan benefits.
Over a year after the legislation became law, provisions are still rolling out. So, what’s new in...more
In this special year-end episode, recorded live from our 42nd Annual Workforce Management Briefing in New York City, Epstein Becker Green attorneys discuss the biggest employment law trends and crucial workforce changes in...more
Section 603 of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (“Section 603”) implements changes to catch-up contributions and is applicable to employers who maintain a 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) plan with participants who are age 50 and older...more
This week, we look at the increase in mental health discrimination charges the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently reported and how employers can respond.
Mental Health Accommodations and Parity in...more
As employers are expanding their fertility, surrogacy, and family planning benefits, the tax treatment of such benefits continues to be a challenge for employers and their employees by both increasing the cost of these...more
As we previously reported, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) into law on March 11, 2021, which, among other things, mandates that employers provide 100 percent COBRA premium subsidies to eligible...more
5/25/2021
/ American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 ,
Biden Administration ,
COBRA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Health Insurance ,
IRS ,
Premium Subsidies ,
Relief Measures ,
Tax Credits
It's our first #WorkforceWednesday of 2021! The past year tested our resilience, and COVID-19 forced everyone to think creatively and adapt quickly. Nowhere was that seen more clearly than in the workplace.
Workplace Safety...more
1/6/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Business Closures ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Cybersecurity ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Furloughs ,
Health and Safety ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Labor Regulations ,
NLRB ,
Paid Leave ,
Personal Information ,
Re-Opening Guidelines ,
Remote Working ,
Return-to-Work Agreements ,
Sick Leave ,
Social Distancing ,
Vaccinations ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
It's #WorkforceWednesday. To mark Mental Health Awareness Month, and to dive deeper into a topic that is top of mind during the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re focusing today’s edition on how employers can support employee mental...more
5/20/2020
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Privacy Rights ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Health and Safety ,
Health Insurance ,
Interactive Process ,
Mental Health ,
Telehealth ,
Vacation Leave ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
As the COVID-19 state of emergency continues, businesses are implementing and considering a variety of employee-related measures to manage the impact of the crisis. While some businesses may avail themselves of payroll...more
During this global health emergency, many employers are facing the necessity of curtailing operations and imposing temporary layoffs or furloughs with their workforce. As a critical consideration, employers have been asking...more
From year to year (and sometimes week to week), there never seems to be a shortage of issues and questions for employee benefit plan sponsors and fiduciaries, as well as compensation committees, to address in order to...more
1/15/2020
/ 401k ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Choice-of-Law ,
COBRA ,
Compensation & Benefits ,
Cybersecurity ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employment Tribunals ,
Executive Compensation ,
IRS ,
Retirement Plan ,
Retirement Plan Providers ,
SECURE Act ,
Tax Planning
The 2019 legal landscape of employee mobility continues to evolve, at times drastically. Courts and legislatures are giving increased scrutiny to employers’ claims to protect the confidentiality of their trade secrets and...more
6/27/2019
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Former Employee ,
Hiring & Firing ,
No-Hire/No-Solicitation Agreements ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Preemption ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Sherman Act ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trade Secrets
On June 19, 2018, the Trump administration finalized a rule that will enable small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together to offer access to large group health plans, which are typically less expensive (but...more
As Gordon Gekko famously pronounced in the 1980s classic movie Wall Street, “The most valuable commodity … is information.” Those words have never rung truer than in today’s world and in today’s workplaces. And as the old...more
5/30/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Big Data ,
Corporate Social Responsibility ,
Cybersecurity ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Diversity ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
GINA ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Popular ,
STEM ,
Voluntary Self-Audit
The Trump Administration has published a proposed rule allowing a significant change to the definition of "employer" under ERISA that would enable small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together to create...more
Welcome to the Summer edition of Benefits Litigation Update, brought to you by The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and the law firm Epstein Becker & Green.
With a new Administration and executive branch, we are already...more
7/28/2017
/ 401k ,
Amgen v Sandoz ,
Benefit Plan Sponsors ,
Biosimilars ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment Contract ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Retirement Plan ,
Summary Plan Description ,
Venue
Welcome to the Spring edition of Benefits Litigation Update, brought to you by The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) and the law firm Epstein Becker & Green.
As a new Congress, and a new executive branch, work on major...more
Employers in the health care industry are likely to face significant changes under President-elect Donald J. Trump’s administration and should expect a healthy dose of uncertainty for the next few months. During his campaign,...more
12/7/2016
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Covered Entities ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Final Rules ,
Health Care Providers ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Non-Discrimination Rules ,
OCR ,
Patient Privacy Rights ,
Trump Administration ,
Unions ,
Vaccinations
Epstein Becker Green and The ERISA Industry Committee (“ERIC”) are pleased to release the current issue of the Benefits Litigation Update (“Update”). The Update is a publication which provides four primary...more
7/14/2016
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
De-Risking ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
GINA ,
Preemption ,
Safe Harbors ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wellness Programs