As a matter of course, it seems that any change HHS may make to something as important as a health plan’s cost-sharing requirements would be loud and clear. Especially around March, common decency dictates that such changes should be in bold, underlined, and all in capital letters for the benefit of those understandably distracted by March ...
For employers in Ohio sponsoring a fully-insured health plan, administering dependent coverage will be a little easier in 2016 thanks to recent legislation. Generally, the ACA requires that health plans that cover dependents make that coverage available until a child reaches the age of 26 with no restrictions. Without debating ...
While I agree with the title, those aren’t my words but rather are the words of Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley in a recent letter to the IRS. The paragraph below is another excerpt from the letter and pretty much sums up how I feel about the tax as well (if anyone cares):
When the ACA was passed into law in 2010, the Cadillac Tax and 2018 seemed so far away. We advised clients to tackle the ACA a few years at a time and not to get bogged down by provisions that went into effect 8 years out, such as the Cadillac Tax. Now that we are into 2015, 2018 and the Cadillac Tax don’t seem that far away ...
Chris Allesee
We don’t often stray out to the Ninth Circuit in this blog, but I recently read a case addressing a contractual limitations period that piqued my interest. In Spinedex Physical Therapy USA, Inc. v. United Healthcare of Arizona, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that a contractual provision imposing a 2-year limitation period on ...
As you have likely heard, Anthem had a sophisticated cyber-attack on their computer system. They believe the information (including social security numbers) of up to 80 million current and former individuals enrolled in Anthem ...
Tom Breitenbach
Under the special timing rule of Internal Revenue Code Section 3121(v), rather than applying FICA taxes at the time of distribution from a nonqualified plan, FICA taxes may be applied at the later of the performance of services or the elimination of any substantial risk of forfeiture (i.e., when vested). This special timing rule ...
Since 1983, the Sixth Circuit had applied an inconvenient presumption that retiree health benefits established through collective bargaining were vested benefits unless the terms of the collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) expressly limited their duration. For decades, the Yard-Man presumption of vested ...
HHS recently announced the federal poverty guidelines for 2015. Prior to the ACA, employers never had much reason to be concerned with the federal poverty guidelines. Beginning this month, large employers are subject to a pay or play penalty if they don’t provide affordable minimum value health plan coverage to ...
I recently saw this article summarizing a nationwide workplace class-action litigation report for 2014. The article notes that there were a total of 7,163 ERISA claims filed in 2014, but the more astounding number was the total settlement figure for ERISA class-action claims in 2014 – a massive $1.3 billion. As a basis for ...