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2021 ABD Employee Benefit Plan Compliance Guides

Article provides links to a dozen compliance guides covering various aspects of health plan benefit design and administration.

Financial Wellness During COVID-19: Moving from Panic Towards Peace (PDF)

65 presentation slides addressed to plan participants. Topics: [1] Recent market volatility and perspective; [2] Financial relief programs; [3] CARES Act, federal and private-sector relief; [4] Opportunities; [5] 401(k)/retirement accounts; [6] Refinancing debt in low interest rate environment; [7] Adjusting your spending and scenario planning; [8] Tools & resources.

New Hampshire Optional Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Coming in 2023

"The intent of this law is to leverage the purchasing power and economies of scale available to the state of New Hampshire by contracting with an insurance carrier or carriers to create an insured paid family and medical leave insurance (FMLI) benefit. The state's newly created FMLI Advisory Board ... is tasked with creating an RFP to be distributed no later than March 31, 2022, with an anticipated effective date of January 1, 2023."

Washington Long-Term Care Insurance Payroll Tax Begins in 2022

"Employees are charged a premium assessment of .58% of wages ($.58 for every $100 earned). The original cap of 1% of earnings has been removed. The payroll tax is funded exclusively by employee contributions. Unlike the WA Paid Family Medical Leave program, there is no employer contribution component to the WA Cares Fund payroll tax."

California Enacts Individual Health Insurance Mandate and Expands Paid Family Leave

"California now joins Massachusetts and New Jersey with a state-based individual mandate requiring residents to maintain health coverage.... [It] is likely that employers will have a reporting requirement similar to the requirement imposed on New Jersey employers.... California's current six-week maximum period of PFL ... will increase to eight weeks as of July 2020.... The stated goal in the bill is to eventually increase PFL to a 12-week maximum in 2021-22. That would provide for a total paid family leave period of six months where utilized by two parents."

Several States Order Insurers to Waive Cost-Sharing for COVID-19 Testing

"At least three states have now directed insurance carriers to waive all health plan cost-sharing associated with COVID-19 testing: California, New York [and] Washington.... More states are likely to follow in the coming weeks. Even for those states without a directive to waive COVID-19 testing cost-sharing, insurance carriers may move voluntarily to make such services available at no cost to employees and family members."

New York to Offer Paid Family Leave in 2018; DC Law to Take Effect in 2019

"New York is set to become the fourth state [to offer paid family and medical leave] effective January 1, 2018. The program will be phased in over a four-year period and will be funded by an employee payroll deduction estimated to be between $.45 to $1.00 per week. While the payroll deduction is scheduled to begin July 1, 2017 in advance of the law taking effect, the State Superintendent of Financial Services has not yet released the maximum employee contribution."

Five Years Down, But Final ACA Implementation Phase Still Looms: Insured Plan Nondiscrimination, Automatic Enrollment, and Cadillac Tax

"[1] Health FSA: The statute specifically provides that both employer contributions (including through flex credits) and employee salary reduction contributions will count toward the Cadillac tax limit. [2] HSA: The statute states that 'employer contributions' to an HSA count toward the Cadillac tax limit. However, the IRS has determined that because employee pre-tax salary reduction contributions to an HSA are treated as employer contributions for tax purposes, both employer and employee contributions will count toward the Cadillac tax.... [3] HRA amounts -- which are funded solely by the employer -- will also count toward the Cadillac tax limit. The IRS is considering how best to determine the cost of coverage provided under an HRA, including potentially relying on the amounts made newly available to a participant each year (and not carryover amounts made available prior to 2018)."

2019 Health FSA Limit Projection, Final San Francisco HCSO Amounts for 2019

"ABD is projecting that for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2019, the health FSA salary reduction contribution limit will increase to $2,700 (up from $2,650 currently).... The increase will not be official until the IRS releases its annual inflation-adjusted limits.... The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) ... recently released the updated 2019 HCSO required health expenditure rates."

2018 Health FSA Limit Projection, New SF HCSO Amounts, and Revised Contraception Rules

"ABD is projecting that for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, the health FSA salary reduction contribution limit will increase to $2,650 (up from $2,600 currently).... The increase will not be official until the IRS releases its annual inflation-adjusted limits [typically in late October].... The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) also recently released the updated 2018 HCSO required health expenditure rates."