Navigating the Nuances of the COBRA Subsidy Under the American Rescue Plan Act
AGG Talks: Solving Employers’ Problems - The American Rescue Plan Act’s COBRA Subsidy: What Is It and How Does It Work?
COBRA Deadlines and Proofs of Mailing in Carter v. Southwest Airlines Co. Board of Trustees
Podcast: Employers and the American Rescue Plan - Employment Law This Week® - #WorkforceWednesday
How the American Rescue Plan Act Affects COBRA
#WorkforceWednesday: The American Rescue Plan, OSHA’s New COVID-19 Directive, and NY Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine PTO - Employment Law This Week®
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - DOL’s Guidance on Continued COVID-19 Timeframe Relief
Three Timely Benefits Items Everyone Should Know
COBRA: Avoid Getting Snakebit! (Notice Update, Deadline Update, Litigation Update)
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - COVID-19 Edition - Deadline Extensions Impacting HIPAA, COBRA and ERISA
Employers: Benefits Considerations Post-Pandemic [More with McGlinchey Ep. 3]
COVID-19 Impact for Health & Welfare Plans (Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton COVID-19 Issues for Employers Podcast Series)
Has the Affordable Care Act influenced COBRA? What if my employer fails to offer COBRA?
Employee benefits law is mostly drawn from two federal sources—the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA. Just what is “ERISA,” though? Its official reference is the “Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.” That means the...more
We are pleased to present our annual End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we present our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. This Part 1 covers year-end health and welfare plan issues....more
ERISA requires plan sponsors to distribute SPDs to inform participants of their benefits, rights, and obligations under the plan and describe how the plan operates. Department of Labor (DOL) regulations (available here)...more
Recent years have seen a barrage of class action lawsuits alleging that group health plan continuation coverage election notices, required under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), are deficient in one...more
On Monday, April 10, President Biden signed a congressional resolution immediately ending the COVID-19 National Emergency and he had previously announced that the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) will expire on May 11....more
Employers should prepare now for impacts to their employee benefit plans when the COVID-19 Outbreak Period expires. On March 29, 2023, in anticipation of the ends of both the National Emergency and Public Health Emergency,...more
The National Emergency brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic may be at an end, but there are still administrative details to sort out. Our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group provides in-depth analysis for how...more
On March 29, 2023, the Departments of Labor (“DOL”), Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and Treasury (the “Departments”) published FAQs Part 58 on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”), the Coronavirus Aid,...more
With the COVID-19 public health emergency and the presidential declaration of national emergency intended to end on May 11 and the US government recently issuing guidance on unwinding these emergency declarations, this...more
With bank uncertainty making headlines, we answer employers’ most frequently asked questions about the consequences of payroll delays, strategies for mitigating risk and more. ...more
On January 30, 2023, the Biden Administration released a Statement of Administration Policy providing that the Administration intends to end the COVID-19 National Emergency declared in 2020 (the “National Emergency”) on May...more
With the pandemic winding down, deadlines for employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) will be resuming. Two different emergencies affect employer-sponsored group health plans:...more
On January 30, 2023, President Biden announced the Administration’s plan to extend the current declarations of the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency (PHE) through May 11, 2023, and end both emergencies...more
Last year about this time, we wrote of how far we had come collectively in the world of employee benefits roughly one year after the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. We reveled at how we kept on keeping on, what we were able...more
The normal difficulties that employers have adhering to the technical requirements of COBRA have been exacerbated during the past two years as COBRA rules were changed to recognize the complications accompanying the COVID-19...more
ERISA litigation has exploded in the past few years, particularly cases alleging excessive fees. Last year was the high-water mark for ERISA class actions with over 200 cases filed, an 80% increase from 2019. 2021 is on track...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued some much-needed guidance surrounding the application of deadline extensions that the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) previously issued for initial elections under...more
Congress extended the availability of refundable tax credits for Eligible Employers who provide paid family leave or sick leave from April 1, 2021 to September 30, 2021 in connection with COVID-related illness. Under ARPA,...more
This Client Advisory summarizes developments in the law governing employee benefit plans prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We explain what these developments mean for plan sponsors and highlight the need to adopt plan...more
The IRS recently issued Notice 2021-31, which provides much sought-after detail regarding the contours and operation of the temporary premium subsidy for COBRA continuation coverage available through the American Rescue Plan...more
As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”), Congress enacted a temporary Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (“COBRA”) subsidy for certain individuals for coverage periods from April 1, 2021...more
On April 7, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) posted model COBRA notices and issued FAQ guidance addressing the recently-enacted COBRA coverage subsidy. The FAQ guidance specifies that individuals may be eligible...more
Last month, we advised readers of this blog to consider efforts to formalize the fiduciary governance of their health and welfare benefit plans. In that post, we described some of the reasons that employers have historically...more
On February 26, 2021, the Department of Labor, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service issued clarifying guidance regarding COVID-19-related deadline extensions under the Internal Revenue Code, ERISA, COBRA and...more