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33 Matching News Items |
| 1. |
Departments Issue Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Related to MHPAEA
Squire Patton Boggs 
Aug. 8, 2023
"The proposed rules incorporate new and revised definitions of key terms ... The final requirement includes collection of the number and percentage of relevant claims denials, as well as other data relevant to the NQTL as required by State law or private accreditation standards. The rules propose a modified, non-exhaustive list of NQTLs, drawing from NQTLs that have been the subject of comparative analyses reviewed by the Departments."
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| 2. |
CMS Plans to Implement Stricter Enforcement Efforts to Boost Hospital Price Transparency Compliance
Squire Patton Boggs
Feb. 26, 2023
"Approximately 30% of hospitals remain noncompliant with the PTR.... CMS has shared several changes that are being explored for future implementation: [1] Standardized reporting.... [2] Conspicuous link placement.... [3] Streamlined enforcement efforts."
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| 3. |
OCR Joins Chorus of Regulators Warning About Health Data Tracking Technology
Squire Patton Boggs
Jan. 4, 2023
"Organizations must conduct a fact-based analysis to determine whether health data collection and tracking technology deployed on their websites and mobile apps complies with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other applicable laws and guidance."
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| 4. |
Supreme Court Reverses Sixth Circuit on Medicare Secondary Payer Act Anti-Discrimination Rules
Squire Patton Boggs
June 26, 2022
"[The Supreme Court] rejected the Sixth Circuit majority's 'disparate-impact' theory because the text of the Act's anti-discrimination provision 'does not ask about 'the effects of non-differentiating plan terms that treat all individuals equally.' ... And the text of the plan, according to the opinion, did not 'differentiate in the benefits provided to individuals with and without end-stage renal disease,' because it provided the same benefits, 'including the same outpatient dialysis benefits, to individuals with and without end-stage renal disease.' " [Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan v. Da Vita Inc., No. 20-1641 (S. Ct. Jun. 21, 2022)]
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| 5. |
Target Date Fund Performance Litigation: Advice for Plan Fiduciaries
Squire Patton Boggs
Feb. 17, 2022
"[C]arefully consider the glide paths employed by the target date funds, and how the funds will be managed in terms of asset allocation and risk tolerance.... Subsequently, when ... examining the plan's target date fund performance over time, be certain to take into consideration the funds' glide paths, asset allocations and risk tolerances."
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| 6. |
Free and Extended COBRA Coverage Under ARPA
Squire Patton Boggs
Mar. 16, 2021
"Given that there are tax credits being provided to help offset the employer's costs, and that an employer can be subject to liability for failure to offer free COBRA coverage, ... it would be wise for employers to be cautious when determining that an offer of free COBRA coverage does not have to be made because an employee's termination of employment was voluntary."
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| 7. |
Supreme Court Ruling Limits Insurer and Employer Contraceptive Obligations
Squire Patton Boggs
July 29, 2020
"Previously, only churches and religious orders were excepted from the contraceptive coverage requirement while nonprofit religious organizations and private for-profit entities that objected to contraception for religious reasons could opt out of the requirement. Now, all are excepted from the federal requirement based on religious or moral objections and insurers are relieved of their obligation, under the accommodation process, to provide contraceptive coverage to employees through an alternative health care plan." [Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania, No. 19-431 (S. Ct. Jul. 8, 2020)]
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| 8. |
IRS Guidance Allows Employers to Offer Second Open Enrollment Period for the 2020 Plan Year and Provides Greater Flexibility for Making Mid-Year Cafeteria Plan Elections
Squire Patton Boggs
May 20, 2020
"Two practical items to note with respect to these relief measures.... [1] Employers may adopt one or all of the election changes.... [2] [T]he ability for an employee to change FSA and DCAP elections was never available under current law. As such, [this option] may provide a tremendous amount of assistance to employees during 2020."
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| 9. |
IRS Reverses Course on the Application of Qualified Healthcare Expenses to the Employee Retention Tax Credit
Squire Patton Boggs
May 11, 2020
"Q&As 64 and 65 now state that employers can claim the ERTC for qualified healthcare expenses, regardless of whether the employee is paid qualified wages.... The revised Q&As clarify this new interpretation with five examples -- in each example, qualified healthcare expenses paid to furloughed employees are considered qualified wages for purposes of the ERTC."
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| 10. |
Employee Benefits Issues in a Slowing Economy (PDF)
Squire Patton Boggs
Mar. 22, 2020
"[1] HIPAA and other privacy issues -- sharing COVID-19 information ... [2] Tax-qualified retirement plans -- partial plan termination ... [3] Participant 401(k) loans and hardship distributions ... [4] Termination of employment -- tax-qualified and non-qualified plan distributions ... [5] Health and welfare premiums during leave ... [6] Short-term disability considerations ... [7] Loss of medical coverage -- COBRA notice requirements ... [8] Life insurance -- conversion notice ... [9] Use of Flexible Spending Account (FSA) funds ... [10] Equity incentive plans."
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| 11. |
Retirement Savings Reform a Focus for the Trump Administration and Congress
Squire Patton Boggs
Dec. 17, 2018
"The [DOL Association Retirement Plan] proposal differs in significant ways from several legislative proposals introduced in Congress. For one thing, the Department's proposal is more limited because it relies solely on the Department's authority to promulgate regulations administering title I of ERISA.... As such, it does not appear that the NPRM -- as currently drafted -- is likely to have much of a substantive impact on ongoing legislative efforts surrounding Open MEPs."
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| 12. |
Supreme Court Will Hear Railroad Retirement Tax Act Issue
Squire Patton Boggs
Jan. 21, 2018
"[The] narrow, technical question that the Supreme Court will address ... is whether stock received upon the exercise of stock options that railroads award to their employees as part of their compensation package is taxable compensation under the RRTA.... The circuits ... are split on whether income from stock options is covered by the term money remuneration, making it taxable under the RRTA." [Wisconsin Central Ltd. v. U.S., No. 17-530 (7th Cir May 8, 2017; cert. pet. granted Jan. 12, 2018)
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| 13. |
U.S. Tax Reform: Death to Nonqualified Deferred Compensation?
Squire Patton Boggs
Nov. 5, 2017
"An employee will no longer be permitted to electively defer compensation out of salary or bonus.... [T]axes may be incurred on account of accruals of benefits under an nonqualified 'excess plan' that wraps around a tax-qualified plan. In addition, the new law would extend to stock options and stock appreciation rights, and also would seem to apply to things like profits interests.... This approach to taxation of nonqualified deferred compensation is currently the rule for tax-exempt organizations under Code Section 457(f)."
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| 14. |
Sixth Circuit Clarifies Exhaustion Requirement in ERISA Suits
Squire Patton Boggs
Apr. 3, 2017
"The opinion drew, and then emphasized, a distinction between actions brought to enforce the terms of a plan -- such as a basic wrongful denial claim -- and those claims brought to enforce the statute itself -- wherein, as here, a plaintiff asserts that the terms of a plan violate ERISA itself.... The court's interpretation joined the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits. The Seventh and Eighth Circuits, on the other hand, have held that the exhaustion prerequisite applies even where the plaintiff is asserting statutory rights." [Hitchcock v. Cumberland Univ. 403(b) DC Plan, No. 16-5942 (6th Cir. Mar. 14, 2017)]
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| 15. |
Sixth Circuit Rejects IRS Claim that Taxpayers Aren't Allowed to Avoid Roth IRA Limits
Squire Patton Boggs
Feb. 21, 2017
"The Court recognized that the petitioners' complicated series of transactions were essentially a strategy for funneling money into Roth IRAs without triggering the contribution limits but that the taxpayers had fully complied with the text of the tax laws in doing so.... The Court rejected the Commissioner's attempt to reclassify the transactions under the substance-over-form doctrine and balked at the Commissioner's contention that when taxpayers are presented with alternative methods of structuring a transaction, the taxpayer must choose that which results in higher tax liability." [Summa Holdings, Inc. v. Comm'r, No. 16-1712 (6th Cir. Feb. 16, 2017)]
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| 16. |
DOJ's Challenge to Anthem/Cigna and Aetna/Humana (PDF)
Squire Patton Boggs
July 28, 2016
"In challenging the proposed Aetna/Humana transaction, DOJ focused principally on the Medicare Advantage (MA) space, alleging that the merger would combine two of the largest MA payers in the country.... In MA, DOJ alleged that the transaction would result in a loss of competition in at least 364 counties across the country, and would create a 'merger to monopoly' in at least 70 of those counties."
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| 17. |
Welcome Tinkering in Section 409A Proposed Regs
Squire Patton Boggs
July 14, 2016
"The proposed changes to the Section 409A regulations contain nearly 20 substantive points. The overall tone is tinkering that will address minor issues that have arisen over time. Most changes are helpful to taxpayers, with a couple of changes designed to close potential loopholes."
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| 18. |
Highlights of the Proposed Regs Under Section 457(f)
Squire Patton Boggs
July 13, 2016
"[T]he new regulations will apply to any pre-existing plans and arrangements that did not have the amounts deferred thereunder previously reported as taxable income. This could cause employees under pre-existing plans or arrangements to be subject to tax as of the effective date of the new regulations."
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| 19. |
Sixth Circuit Nixes Provider ERISA Suit
Squire Patton Boggs, via National Law Review
June 29, 2016
"The more nuanced question became whether the provider had derivative standing under ERISA by virtue of the assignments of benefits. Blue Cross insisted that the assignment of benefit forms provided only for direct payment and therefore did not grant an assignment of rights sufficient to confer derivative standing.... [T]he Court found that the recoupment suit fell outside the scope of the assignments of benefit, and thus the provider was not entitled to any relief. This provider had a contract with Blue Cross and the Court found that its claims were more properly contractual, rather than arising from ERISA." [Brown v. BlueCross BlueShield of Tenn., No. 15-5739 (6th Cir. June 27, 2016)]
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| 20. |
IRS Complicates Health Plan Waivers of Coverage
Squire Patton Boggs
Feb. 1, 2016
"If an employer is currently using an 'unconditional' waiver of coverage, should it modify that practice to require an employee to show evidence of other coverage? Certainly, doing so will help to insulate the employer from some level of potential tax liability under IRC Section 4980H(b). However, if the actual amount of tax risk is minimal, the employer may want to consider whether it is worthwhile amending its policies and practices to require proof of other coverage."
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