compliance
March 4, 2020
Status of Court Case Challenging ACA Constitutionality
Updated March 2020 On March 2, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court (Supreme Court) announced that it will hear the court case challenging the ACA’s constitutionality. Previously, the Supreme Court declined expedited review the case. On December 18, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth ...
February 7, 2020
Compliance Recap | January 2020
January was a busy month in the employee benefits world. The U.S. Supreme Court (Supreme Court) denied expedited review of a court case challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Supreme Court also granted review of a nationwide preliminary ...
February 5, 2020
Proposed 2021 Benefit Payment and Parameters Rule
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule for benefit payment and parameters for 2021. CMS also released its draft 2021 actuarial value calculator and draft 2021 actuarial value calculator methodology. According to CMS, the proposed rule is intended to ...
January 31, 2020
Nondiscrimination Rules for Cafeteria Plans
Updated January 2020 A cafeteria plan is an employer-provided written plan that offers employees the opportunity to choose between at least one permitted taxable benefit and at least one qualified employee benefit. There is no federal law that requires employers to establish cafeteria plans; ...
January 15, 2020
What Group Plan Sponsors Need to Know About ERISA
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was signed in 1974. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is the agency responsible for administering and enforcing this law. For many years, most of ERISA’s requirements applied to pension plans. However, in recent years that changed and group ...
January 6, 2020
Compliance Recap | December 2019
December was a busy month in the employee benefits world. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) individual mandate is unconstitutional. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released final instructions and final 1094-B, ...
January 3, 2020
Proposed Rules on Coverage Transparency and Final Rules on Hospital Price Transparency
Updated January 2020 On November 15, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Labor (DOL), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (collectively, Departments) released proposed rules on coverage transparency. The proposed rules seek to give an estimate of plan ...
December 27, 2019
Overtime Rule Goes Into Effect January 1, 2020
For many employers, overtime is a tricky issue. Should you offer it to all employees? Only hourly employees? How much time should they work before they are eligible? Effective January 1, 2020, this will be decided for any employers struggling to classify overtime status. Last September, the ...
December 27, 2019
Federal Tax Credit for Employer-Provided Paid Family and Medical Leave
In December 2019, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 included a one-year extension of the federal tax credit for employers that provide paid family and medical leave (FML) to their employees. As background, in December 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Act) included the new ...
December 16, 2019
IRS Releases Final Forms and Instructions for 2019 ACA Reporting
Background Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), applicable large employers (ALEs) are required to offer health benefits to their full‑time employees and individuals are required to have health insurance, although the penalty is $0 for individuals who fail to have minimum ...
