Earlier we discussed the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the US Department of Health and Human Services final rules relating to reproductive health care information (the “Final Rules”). In our prior blog we discussed that...more
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the US Department of Health and Human Services recently released a final rule (“Final Rule”) to update the HIPAA Privacy Rules for reproductive health care information. The Final Rule...more
The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the US Department of Health and Human Services recently released a final rule (“Final Rule”) to update the HIPAA Privacy Rules for reproductive health care information. The Final Rule...more
In a December 2023 blog post, we discussed the HHS proposed revisions to the Part 2 regulations and that finalization of those regulations was imminent. On February 8, 2024, HHS through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health...more
Over the last two years, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has released a number of proposed regulations and new guidance relating to the HIPAA privacy rules. Not to be left out, recently, the Federal Trade Commission...more
The IRS has announced inflation-adjusted limits for retirement plans in Notice 2023-75.
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On July 20th, CMS issued an open letter to employers, plan sponsors and insurers requesting that they extend the normal 60-day special enrollment period for Medicaid and CHIP terminations of coverage....more
Many people, for one reason or another, are unable to start or expand a family. Some people look to assisted reproductive technologies (“ARTs”) to conceive a child. These ART treatments include in vitro fertilization...more
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June, employers have been evaluating ways to protect reproductive health care rights for their employees in those states which ban or...more
On July 28, 2022, the federal regulators (referred to as the “Departments”) released a new set of FAQs (Part 54) under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) to clarify the scope of the preventive care mandate, in particular, with...more
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) has issued several pieces of guidance regarding protections for an individual’s...more
Since the Dobbs decision, employers and health plan sponsors have been scrambling to determine how they can assist employees and health plan participants in states that currently or will soon be restricting access to...more
The Supreme Court released an opinion Tuesday, June 21, 2022, holding that the Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan (“Marietta Plan”) did not violate the Medicare Secondary Payer statute merely because it...more
As we previously discussed, federal regulators released FAQs on January 10, 2022 (“January FAQs”), requiring health plans to cover over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 tests for all participants during the pandemic, without...more
Federal regulators recently released FAQs providing that health plans are now required to cover over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 tests for all participants through the remaining duration of the pandemic, without requiring an...more
Section 202 of Title II of Division BB of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“CAA”) added new ERISA Section 408(b)(2)(B) to be effective as of December 27, 2021. The new section requires persons who provide...more
On November 22, 2021, the IRS released a draft version of proposed regulations that have been submitted for publication to the Federal Register (but not yet formally published) which would permanently extend the annual...more
Medicare Tax -
The regular Medicare tax rate of 1.45% remains unchanged and applies to all income without a limitation for both the employee and employer portion. The Affordable Care Act additional Medicare tax of 0.9%...more
On Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and Department of Treasury (“Treasury”) released guidance (Notice 2021-58) clarifying certain deadlines relating to COBRA continuation coverage in connection with the ongoing...more
Last week we discussed on our ERISA Blog that the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) has become a top agenda item for plan sponsors in 2021. In this next post we will discuss the next steps that...more
On August 12, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a $15.6 million settlement related to violations of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). In the news release announcing the...more
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor jointly released a package of guidance relating to the surprise billing reforms included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (“CAA”). The guidance...more
Since the passage of the original mental health parity requirements over two decades ago, mental health parity can be described as riding a porpoise as it dives in and out of the waters of compliance. However, with the...more