Many employers this time of year are finding out that they are going to be receiving a premium increase for their health plans. As someone who sits on our firm’s health care committee, I can attest that sometimes that increase can feel like a gut punch when you receive it. Once employers negotiate it or shop their plan to get that final rate, the next ...
As mentioned in our prior post, numerous benefit plan-related deadlines were extended by the DOL when it declared a National Emergency due to COVID-19 in March, 2020. By law, the National Emergency continues until: (1) emergency is not continued by the president; (2) the president terminates it; or (3) a joint resolution of Congress terminates ...
Lyndsey Barnett and Cassidy Zang*
McDonald’s recently notified a Florida federal court that a class-wide settlement was reached and ready for approval in the COBRA suit brought against them. This settlement is the result of an action filed in December 2020 by a former employee who alleged that the corporation was sending former employees ...
By: Lyndsey Barnett and Michaela Taylor*
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has handed down their latest action against a medical center in Oklahoma for violations of HIPAA’s privacy, security, and breach notification rules. The health center will now pay $875,000 in fines to resolve a ...
By: Lyndsey Barnett and Michaela Taylor*
On June 21, 2022, the Sixth Circuit in Smith v. CommonSpirit Health provided updated guidance for plan sponsors in excessive 401(k) fee complaint cases. In their opinion, which affirmed a September 2021 decision from the Eastern District of Kentucky, the court held that whether an ERISA excessive fee claim ...
By: Kristine Maher & Michaela Taylor
In a 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan v. DaVita, Inc. (No. 20-1641), holding that the health plan's reimbursement rates for outpatient dialysis do not violate the Medicare Secondary Payer Act (MSPA). Graydon analyzed the ...
If you sponsor a self-insured group health plan (or an HRA), make sure you set a calendar alert for July 31 to pay the annual PCORI fee (Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute fee) for the 2021 plan year. The PCORI fee and the related IRS Form 720 are due no later than July 31st. The updated form can be found here, and the PCORI fee is reported on Part ...
The IRS launched a new pilot program this month that will greatly benefit employee benefit plan sponsors if they act quickly. The new 90-day Pre-Examination Compliance Pilot Program not only gives plan sponsors an opportunity to correct plan errors prior to an IRS examination, but may reduce sanctions levied by the IRS or reduce the scope of an ...
Maintaining a retirement plan requires knowledge of the law and diligence in application by plan administrators, but even the most prudent administrator can make a mistake. Plan sponsors can often correct mistakes made by following the guidelines in Revenue Procedure 2021-30, otherwise known as the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution ...
As discussed in our prior blog post, the DOL has recently been more receptive to permitting retirement plan fiduciaries to consider Environmental, Social, and Governance issues (“ESG”) when considering investment funds. The DOL’s tentative acceptance of ESG factors in the last few years mirrors an increased participant demand for ...