"Sponsors of employee benefit plans will need to start preparing now for these upcoming changes.... [1] COBRA deadlines ... [2] HIPAA special enrollment deadlines ... [3] Claims and appeals deadlines ... [4] COVID-19 testing and vaccines ... [5] Pre-deductible COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment ... [6] Employee Assistance Programs."  MORE >>

"One common error is a failure to check 'Yes' in column (a) of Part III of the Form 1094-C to confirm that the employer offered coverage to at least 95% of full-time employees and their dependents. Another common error is the employer failing to enter the appropriate code on Line 16 of the Form 1095-C."  MORE >>

"HIPAA covered entities, which include group health plans, are required to notify the [HHS] Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of 'small' breaches (those affecting less than 500 individuals) of unsecured protected health information. The deadline to notify HHS is March 1st following the calendar year in which the breach is discovered."  MORE >>

"For entities that have chosen to utilize a single process for all claims (both pre- and post-2018), the decision will likely have few immediate impacts. Perhaps the bigger importance going forward, though, is that the logic of Zall appears to authorize a broad swath of retroactive regulations, so long as they are procedural in nature." [Zall v. Standard Ins. Co., No. 22-1096 (7th Cir. Jan. 19, 2023)]  MORE >>

"[The Ninth Circuit] ruled that the district court erred by comparing all military leaves, rather than just the short-term military leaves at issue here, with non-military leaves. It then noted that 'comparability is a question of fact.' It is, therefore, a question for the jury unless the facts of a case suggest that no reasonable jury could see enough commonality for a meaningful comparison." [Clarkson v. Alaska Airlines, Inc., No. 21-35473 (9th Cir. Feb. 1, 2023)]  MORE >>

"Employers often view themselves as paternalistic: they wish to make it easier for their workers to get affordable health coverage. They also do not want to relinquish control over health plans ... The ACA presented an opportunity to challenge the status quo of employment-based benefits, with analysts predicting employers would eventually redirect workers to ACA exchanges. Yet the link between employment and health benefits has not wavered since passage of the ACA ... 70 percent of workers receive coverage through an employer-sponsored plan."  MORE >>

"Health insurance giant Humana, which is based in Louisville, will discontinue its employer-sponsored programs over the next two years.... The vast majority of the company's $88.5 billion in insurance revenue came from government contracts last year, Humana said in its annual report.... Humana reported it had more than 986,000 members on commercial group plans last year, or nearly 6% of its total membership."  MORE >>

174 pages. "This document contains final forms and instructions revisions for the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan effective for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2023. The forms and instructions revisions relate to statutory amendments to [ERISA] and the Internal Revenue Code enacted as part of the [SECURE Act] for multiple-employer plans and groups of plans, as well as changes intended to improve reporting of certain plan financial information regarding audits and plan expenses and enhance the reporting of certain tax qualification and other compliance information by retirement plans. There are also some minor changes that further improve defined benefit plan reporting by building on changes made to the forms for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2022."  MORE >>

"This document contains amendments to [DOL] regulations relating to annual reporting requirements under Title I of [ERISA}. The amendments contained in this document conform the DOL reporting regulations to revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan being published ... in a separate Notice of Final Forms Revisions ... Conforming changes also are being made to the requirements for the summary annual report."  MORE >>