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Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter

BULLETIN #2
December 19, 2025

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See also: Bulletin #1 for December 19, 2025 (click)

[Official Guidance]

Text of EBSA, HHS and IRS Proposed Regs: Transparency in Coverage

241 pages. "These proposed rules set forth proposed requirements that would amend the regulations under the Public Health Service Act, [ERISA] and the Internal Revenue Code regarding price transparency reporting requirements for non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers offering non-grandfathered group and individual health insurance coverage. Specifically, these proposed rules would improve the standardization, accuracy, and accessibility of public pricing disclosures in line with the goals of the Executive Order 14221. With respect to the in-network rate and out-of-network allowed amount machine-readable files, these proposed rules would achieve these goals by adding new contextual files and additional data elements like product type, network name, and enrollment counts; changing the reporting level for aggregation of data; removing in-network rates for unlikely provider-to-service mappings; increasing the reporting period and lowering the claims threshold for out-of-network historical data; and reducing the reporting cadence. These proposed rules would also improve the findability of all of the publicly disclosed machine- readable files required under the Transparency in Coverage rules, including the prescription drug file, by requiring a text file and footer with website URLs and contact information for the files. These proposed rules would also require pricing information that is made available through an online consumer tool and paper (upon request), to also be made available by phone, and establish that the satisfaction of such requirement also satisfies the requirements of section 114 of the No Surprises Act (including for grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers offering grandfathered group and individual health insurance coverage that are not otherwise subject to these proposed rules)."  MORE >>

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS]; Employee Benefits Security Administration [EBSA], U.S. Department of Labor [DOL]; and Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

[Official Guidance]

Text of CMS Proposed Regs: Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing Model

279 pages. "This proposed rule proposes to implement the Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing Model (GLOBE Model), a new Medicare payment model under section 1115A of the Social Security Act. The GLOBE Model would test whether a payment model that uses an alternative method for calculating Part B inflation rebate amounts for certain separately payable Part B drugs and biologicals products reduces costs for Medicare fee-for- service (FFS) beneficiaries and the Medicare program while preserving quality of care."  MORE >>

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS]

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BenefitsLink® Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9595.

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