Providing health benefits to your employees is a highly regulated undertaking, and it’s a good idea to get the lay of the legal landscape. The following is an overview of a few of the major laws affecting health insurance plans offered by employers.
Federal benefits laws include:
ERISA. The main purpose of the Employee...
The enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 launched an extended period during which far-reaching changes to the American healthcare system took effect.
Affordable Care Act Overview
The ACA was implemented in stages and encompasses several major areas:
Measures to encourage more employers to provide coverage, such as the...
It’s common for employers to provide certain benefits for their employees, many of which are subject to strict rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code, and other laws.
Employee benefits can include:
Paid holiday, vacation, and sick leave;
Medical, dental, and vision insurance...
“Qualified benefits” include such things as health insurance, dental and vision coverage, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment coverage, and short and long-term disability benefits. For example, employees may be given a choice between the more expensive PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) or the less expensive HMO (...
Guidance on retirement plan fee disclosure rules released
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has issued guidance meant to help plan administrators and service providers comply with the requirements of new rules improving the transparency of fees and investment expenses in retirement plans....
By Stacey Rose Harris
DiMuroGinsberg, P.C.
This is the third and final article in our series addressing your obligations under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, commonly referred to as COBRA. Under COBRA, employers with 20 or more employees must allow employees to purchase health insurance after a “...
Although the controversial individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—also known as “Obamacare”—has received the bulk of attention from both legal scholars and the popular press, another important aspect of the law that employers should be aware of concerns wellness programs. The ACA provides new incentives...
Many employers waited to address the ACA’s 2014 changes
Most employers waited for the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) before addressing the law’s provisions that go into effect in 2014 or later, according to a survey of more than 4,000 employers by Mercer. Additionally, although 40 percent of the...
By Sara E. Hauptfuehrer
Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
We have previously reported on the final rules of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) requirements. Since then, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the IRS, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (collectively, “the departments...
By Lorraine Yeomans
The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken, ending its spring 2012 term with surprising and polarizing results in one of the most hotly anticipated decisions of the past several years.
NFIB v. Secretary Sebelius, Department of Health and Human Services
On June 29th in a 5-4 decision delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., the...
