Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a number of new notices updating and clarifying the preventive services expenses that high deductible health plans (“HDHP”) can cover without affecting a participant’s health savings account (“HSA”) eligibility. As background, there are multiple requirements that must ...
If you are 73 or older, remember to take your Required Minimum Distributions from any retirement plan or IRA you may have. As discussed in prior blog posts, Required Minimum Distributions (“RMDs”) are taxable amounts that account owners must withdraw annually if they meet the age requirement of 73. Failure to take an RMD on time may result in ...
Santa is not the only person who should be making a list and checking it twice this December. All sponsors of self-insured medical plans should also make sure that they double-check their year end to do lists. Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), keeping your health plan in compliance seems more and more difficult each year. We know you ...
The IRS released its annual update for the cost-of-living adjustments for 2025. Similar to the adjustments made last year, there are widespread increases for 2025. As you can see from our chart below, almost all IRS limits were affected by this year’s cost-of-living adjustments. Although the catch-up contribution limit for individuals age ...
In a recent court ruling, the US Department of Labor (DOL) prevailed against corporate directors and shareholders for claims related to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) transaction. Most ESOPs are established through arm's length transactions that comply with the Employment Retirement Income Security Act’s(ERISA) fiduciary ...
Last month, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury (Departments), issued the highly anticipated final rule under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). The original text of the MHPAEA requires group health plans to offer mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) care on the ...
Effective January 1, 2025, Kentucky has new law regulating pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”). Earlier this year, the Governor of Kentucky signed SB 188 into law, making Kentucky the latest state to pass legislation regulating PBMs. The new law applies to PBM contracts issued, renewed, extended, or amended on or after January 1, 2025.
SB ...
For the first time in four years, the IRS adjusted the affordability percentage used for the shared responsibility penalties. The IRS recently announced that the affordability percentage for 2025 will be 9.02%. This is up from 8.39% in 2024. For employers this means that if you set your employee premium costs from last year right at the ...
The retirement plan industry has been wrestling with the changes to required minimum distribution (RMD) provisions made by the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0. One issue in particular has caused considerable confusion. Section 401(a)(9) of the Code was amended to provide that, if a retirement plan participant dies after distributions have begun ...
On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the Reproductive Health Care Rule. This final rule enhances the HIPAA privacy protections for protected health information (PHI) relating to reproductive health care. While the Rule is effective June 25, 2024, all covered entities, including group health ...