Employee benefits are an important part of every employees' total compensation package. The continuously evolving landscape in the areas of health care reform, retirement plan design, and executive compensation makes it difficult for employee benefits professionals to keep up with relevant developments. The employee benefits attorneys at Leonard, Street and Deinard provide human resources professionals, plan fiducia- ries, actuaries, accountants, and others in the industry with practical and cost-effective assistance as they navigate through the complex laws, regulations and guidance that govern employee benefits plans. This blog highlights key developments in the employee benefits field and items of interest to our clients. Our Bloggers →
Cafeteria Plans, Health Plan, Retirement Plans, Welfare Plans As many of our readers know, on Tuesday, May 14, 2013, Minnesota became the twelfth state to recognize same sex marriages. The effective date of the change is August 1, 2013, which gives employers some time to react to the change and analyze its effect on their employment policies and benefits. We sent an Alert to...
Cafeteria Plans, Health Plan The Department of Health and Human Services released final Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security regulations on January 25, 2013. These regulations impact covered entities, including group health plans, most health care flexible spending accounts, and their business...
Health Plan Employers who sponsor health plans for their employees can purchase insurance contracts to fund those plans. Alternatively, employers can self-fund or self-insure those benefits, agreeing to pay the claims themselves. Many employers who provide self-funded plans also buy stop-loss insurance to cover the risk of...
Health Plan Many employers are offering wellness programs to employees in connection with their health plans and are aware of the HIPAA regulations that govern such programs. Although employers design their wellness programs to conform to the HIPAA guidance, they sometimes forget that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)...
ERISA and Other Benefits Litigation, Fiduciary Guidance, Health Plan, Welfare Plans On April 16, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in U.S. Airways, Inc. v. McCutchen http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-1285_i4dk.pdf finding in favor of U.S. Airways in its quest to recover $66,866 in medical expenses incurred by its employee as a result of a traffic accident. McCutchen was a...
Health Care Reform, Health Plan The Department of Labor has published two checklists that plan sponsors can use to test their compliance with group health plan requirements. One checklist addresses the Affordable Care Act (ACA or health care reform) provisions, including a plan’s status as a “grandfathered” plan exempt from some ACA...
Health Care Reform, Health Plan The Affordable Care Act requires most health plans to cover certain women’s preventive services, including contraception, without charging a co-pay or deductible. On January 30, 2013, the Obama Administration released proposed rules that continue to implement provisions in the health care law providing women...
Health Plan My colleague, Jessica Kracl, has written an Alert for our health care clients about the recently issued privacy and security regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Employer group health plans are covered entities under HIPAA and therefore must comply with the new...
Health Plan My colleague, Blake Schofield, has sent an Alert to our health law clients regarding an enforcement action taken by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) against a hospice provider in Idaho relating to a stolen laptop. The number of affected patients was less than 500. The OCR...
Health Care Reform, Health Plan, Payroll The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires employers who issue 250 or more W-2s in a year to report the aggregate cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan in Box 12 of each employee’s Form W-2, using code DD. In general, the amount reported should include both the employer and...
