In a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) posted to the Department of Labor’s website on January 24, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury (the “Departments”) put a stop to an approach to health plan design under which employers furnish employees with a pre-determined dollar amount (a “defined contribution”) that employees can apply toward the purchase of health insurance coverage in the individual health insurance market.

An arrangement under which an employer provides an amount of money to employees to pay for unreimbursed medical expenses or for individual market premiums is itself a “group health plan.” Such an arrangement is referred to and regulated under the Internal Revenue Code as a “health reimbursement arrangement” or “HRA.” The HRA approach described above is referred to as a “stand-alone HRA” to distinguish it from arrangements in which the HRA is paired with an employer’s group health plan. This latter HRA design is referred to as an “integrated HRA.”