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Hello, Our group plan carrier messed up and failed to enroll an employee back in April when we submitted her application. However, because we didn't know that until September, she has been enrolled on our group HRA since April. So, we were/are out of compliance for the five months she was not covered by our group health plan. The carrier has since enrolled her onto our health plan as of 9/1, but our broker doesn't think they will consent to back-enrolling to April. If they don't, what do you think we should do? Fortunately, she didn't have any medical claims until September, but she did use her HRA for some dental/vision charges prior to September. We would like to make the employee whole, since it wasn't her fault, and ideally get back into compliance. Should we: Report her HRA employer contributions as taxable for those five months she was not covered and give her a bonus to cover the taxes; Reset her HRA active status date to 9/1 and give her a (taxable) bonus to cover the HRA contributions for those five months; Not even bother asking the carrier to back-enroll her to April and just ignore the fact she was not covered by our group plan for five months (what are the risks here?); Or something else? Of course, if the carrier won't back-enroll her to April, we will also reimburse her premium payroll deductions. Thanks for any advice!

Has anyone reviewed the New Mexico Vaccine Purchasing Act? It purports to assess a fee upon ERISA group health plans, including self-funded plans for the cost of vaccines that the Department of Health purchases to have on hand for all children in New Mexico. The plans are invoiced for a proportionate cost of the vaccines provided to the health care providers. It seems to me that the law would be preempted with respect to such plans by ERISA but I'm hearing no discussion about it anywhere. The Act does not prevent the providers from then billing the plans for the immunizations, as well, creating duplicate payment scenario. In addition, there is a $500 per day penalty assessed for failing to pay an invoice. Just curious if anyone has any thoughts...