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Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter January 5, 2021 |
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Newly Posted ERISA Fiduciary Basics
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Discussions |
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This Newsletter:
BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter:
Message Boards Digest:
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[Guidance Overview]
"[T]he bill's coverage-related provisions ... include appropriations provisions relevant to the [ACA], protections from surprise medical bills, continuity of care protections, enhanced mental health parity requirements, and several new provisions designed to increase the transparency of health care costs." Katie Keith, in Health Affairs Blog |
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[Guidance Overview]
"The new law provides plan sponsors with two options for increasing participant flexibility with respect to using amounts deferred under a health or dependent care FSA, as well as permitting some leeway with respect to dependent care benefits and expanding options for election deadlines." Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP |
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[Guidance Overview]
"The DOL advises that when an employer chooses to use electronic means to satisfy workplace posting requirements, such as on an intranet site, internet website, or shared network, the electronic notice must be as effective as a hard copy posting. The DOL will not consider electronic posting on a website or intranet to be effective if the employer does not customarily post notices to employees electronically." Franczek P.C. |
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[Guidance Overview]
"Covered employers who voluntarily continue to offer FFCRA leave through the first quarter of 2021 will be eligible for the FFCRA tax credit, which reimburses employers for the cost of providing FFCRA leave. For New York employers, though, their responsibilities under Senate Bill 8091, which guarantees certain leave, benefits and job protections to employees affected by COVID-19, remain in full force." Duane Morris LLP |
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[Guidance Overview]
"Under the state law, January 1 marked the date that covered employers must permit eligible employees to begin using sick leave benefits they have accrued since the law's September 30, 2020 effective date. Although the statewide mandate is now fully in effect, employers should continue to look out for further developments at the state level, including final regulations. Under the city mandate, January 1 marked the beginning of the law's increased annual usage cap for certain sized employers." Seyfarth Shaw LLP |
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"D.C.'s COVID-19-leave laws took effect on March 11, 2020, and are set to expire on March 31, 2021. In 2020, employers subject to both the FFCRA and these D.C. laws generally fulfilled their D.C. COVID-19 leave obligations when they provided FFCRA leave to covered employees. Now, employers with workers in D.C. should ensure they provide D.C. COVID-19 leave to covered employees who need it." Jackson Lewis P.C. |
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"Starting this month, most people with private insurance will no longer have to decide whether they can afford to protect themselves against HIV. Most health plans must begin to cover the drugs then without charging consumers anything out-of-pocket (some plans already began doing so last year).... [The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force] recommended PrEP for people at high risk of HIV infection, including men who have sex with men and injection drug users." Kaiser Health News |
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"In some cases, employees with HDHPs are inadvertently getting the message they should be avoiding care altogether to save themselves and their family money. And they're engaging with their benefit plan sporadically. Unlike how employees engage with other industries, they tend to step into and out of their benefit plan, often with little information. It's incumbent on all of us to recognize that our employees are consumers, as well, and provide them with an end-to-end healthcare journey that's a true continuum." HR Daily Advisor |
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"The healthcare company began telling employees on [January 4] about plans to shut down by the end of next month ... Haven was first announced in January 2018 as a venture that could leverage their combined resources to create health solutions to benefit their U.S. workforces and, eventually, all Americans. Their main targets: the complexity of healthcare coverage and out-of-control costs." FierceHealthcare |
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[Opinion]
"Following Rutledge, there is the potential for more widespread adoption of similar legislation by states targeting other payment practices, not only by PBMs, but also by other group health plan service providers, like [TPAs] that manage employer health and behavioral health benefits. Legislation of the sort could have a chilling effect on strategies currently used by employers, TPAs and PBMs to manage benefit costs for self-funded plans." [Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Mgmt. Assoc., No. 18-540 (S. Ct. Dec. 10, 2020)] Groom Law Group |
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Benefits in General |
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[Guidance Overview]
"[1] Retirement Plans: Partial plan termination relief ... Limited retirement plan disaster relief ... Money purchase plan coronavirus-related distributions ... Multiemployer plan minimum age for distributions during working retirement ... Transfers of excess pension assets to retiree health or life accounts ... [2] Temporary relief applicable to FSA administration ... [3] Extended employer assistance for student loans ... [4] Employer group health plans: ... New surprise medical billing rules ... New mental health parity rules." Holland & Hart LLP |
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"A recent decision out of the District Court of New Jersey exemplifies how even the most seemingly mundane procedural act — removal — implicates procedural and legal nuances with which courts continue to grapple." [Newton v. South Jersey Paper Products Company, Inc., No. 19-17289 (D.N.J. Dec. 17, 2020)] Robinson & Cole LLP, via LexBlog |
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Press Releases |
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Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue |
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