Within a one-week period, there were two actions at the federal level to increase pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) transparency. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 (CAA 2026) and Department of Labor (DOL) proposed...more
On January 30, 2026, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) published proposed regulations (408(b) rules) that would significantly increase transparency requirements for pharmacy...more
On December 9, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provided clarifying guidance in Notice 2026-5 (the Notice) regarding several account-based health plan provisions contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)....more
The Departments of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Labor (DOL) (together, the Departments) published proposed rules on December 23, 2025 (Proposed Rule), aimed at improving...more
While America’s divorce rate has generally been declining over recent years, over 1.8 million Americans still divorce each year. Divorce is one of the most complex and stressful life events your employees may face, affecting...more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a proposed rule on November 28, 2025 (the Proposed Rule) that would carve out account-based group health plans from the requirement to provide a Medicare Part...more
We continue our series on the legal and regulatory challenges facing individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs); this time, we are focusing on the fintech-related requirements that may apply to ICHRA...more
7/28/2025
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
BSA/AML ,
Compliance ,
Employee Benefits ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Gramm-Leach-Blilely Act ,
Health Insurance ,
ICHRA ,
Lenders ,
Money Services Business ,
Payment Systems ,
Regulatory Requirements
President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) on July 4, 2025. The telehealth safe harbor, which allowed first dollar coverage of telehealth services without impacting Health Savings Account (HSA)...more
7/9/2025
/ Employee Benefits ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Federal Funding ,
HDHP ,
Health Insurance ,
HSA ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
New Legislation ,
Tax Reform ,
Telehealth ,
Trump Administration
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA), and its implementing regulations and guidance, prohibits health insurance policies and group health plans that cover mental health and substance use disorder...more
During the COVID-19 crisis, newly-created relief allowed first dollar coverage for telehealth services under a high deductible health plan (HDHP) without ruining health savings account (HSA) eligibility. That relief was...more
As summarized in our prior article on this topic, individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs) are gaining popularity and constituting a larger part of the overall employer-provided health coverage market. ...more
12/19/2024
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Data Breach ,
Due Diligence ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Enforcement ,
FinTech ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
HIPAA Privacy Rule ,
HIPAA Security Rule ,
Independent Contractors ,
Medicare Part D ,
Payroll Deductions ,
Third-Party ,
Third-Party Service Provider
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and its implementing regulations and guidance (MHPAEA) prohibit health insurance policies and group health plans that cover mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD)...more
9/19/2024
/ Compliance ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Fiduciary ,
Final Rules ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
MHPAEA ,
NQTLs ,
Substance Abuse ,
U.S. Treasury
There are new regulations requiring employers who offer hospital indemnity or other fixed indemnity insurance benefits for plan years starting on or after January 1, 2025, to provide specific notice of the benefit to all...more
Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs) have continued to grow in popularity since their inception in 2019 (see our article here summarizing the 2019 rule establishing ICHRAs). While initially it seemed...more
6/19/2024
/ COBRA ,
Employee Benefits ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
ICHRA ,
IRS ,
Medicare ,
Payment Systems ,
PCORI ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Small Business ,
Vendors
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) added a requirement for health plans to document their compliance with nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act...more
9/21/2023
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
MHPAEA ,
New Guidance ,
NQTLs ,
Opioid ,
Proposed Rules ,
Substance Abuse ,
U.S. Treasury
On March 17, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released updated guidance on whether certain costs related to substance abuse programs, exercise programs, wellness and general health qualify as medical expenses under...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 requires group health plans to report specific air ambulance claim data, as summarized in our prior articles available here and here. As noted in our prior articles, proposed rules...more
Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), group health plans and health insurance issuers are required to annually attest that they are in compliance with the CAA’s gag clause prohibition. On a high level, the...more
On January 30th, President Biden announced his intention to end both the COVID-19 national emergency and the COVID-19 public health emergency (together, the “Emergency Declarations”) effective May 11, 2023. The Emergency...more
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (2023 CAA) further extends the HSA safe harbor allowing high deductible health plans (HDHPs) to offer first dollar coverage of telehealth services without ruining HDHP members’...more
On December 23, 2022, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) provided welcome relief in the form of an FAQ regarding the Prescription Drug Data Collection (RxDC)...more
This year, Foley’s Health Benefits Practice has released multiple alerts on several of the new group health plan requirements set forth by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) and the Transparency in Coverage...more
Group health plans must comply with several new requirements set forth by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA) and the Transparency in Coverage regulations (TiC Regulations) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). ...more
10/27/2022
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Continuity of Care ,
Cost-Sharing ,
Disclosure ,
Gag Clauses ,
Health Care Providers ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
No Surprises Act (NSA) ,
Price Transparency ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Third-Party Service Provider
Air ambulance services often result in large, unanticipated medical bills for patients. A study by the Government Accountability Office found that in 2017, 69% of air ambulance transports provided to individuals covered by...more
10/19/2022
/ Deadlines ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
GAO ,
HCPCS ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Plan Sponsors ,
No Surprises Act (NSA) ,
Proposed Rules ,
Third-Party ,
U.S. Treasury
Not surprisingly, leading up to and in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, our employee benefits team has been spending a lot of time helping our clients wade through...more
7/20/2022
/ Abortion ,
COBRA ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
IRS ,
Medical Reimbursement ,
Mental Health Parity Rule ,
MHPAEA ,
Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) ,
SCOTUS