Delta Dawn, What’s that Surcharge You’re Adding On? Employers Consider Raising Premiums for Unvaccinated Workers

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by Beth Nedrow

Employers are impacted in many ways by the COVID-19 pandemic, not the least of which are employee health and safety. For the last several months, employers have used mostly soft-sell approaches to encourage their employees to get vaccinated. With the FDA’s approval, employers are showing a willingness to move beyond incentives like gift cards. One of the more notable examples in the headlines lately is Delta Airlines’ decision to implement a premium surcharge on unvaccinated workers. Employees who don’t get the jab will have to pay more in premiums under the Airlines’ medical plan. Read more

Here We Go Again, PCORI’s Back in Town

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By Benjamin Gibbons

For those employers that sponsor a self-insured health plan, it’s important to be aware that the deadline for your 2021 PCORI filing is August 2, 2021. This deadline applies for plan years ending on December 31, 2020 (or any others between October 1, 2020 and October 1, 2021).  If you haven’t yet made your PCORI filing on IRS Form 720, we recommend doing so as soon as possible. Read more

Time Has Come Today…For Form 5500 Season

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By Benjamin Gibbons

Days are getting longer, temperatures are getting warmer, plants are looking greener, schools are letting out, Brood X cicadas are emerging…it can only mean one thing…5500 season is approaching.

However, unlike the cicadas and their 17-year cycle, the Form 5500 filing requirements arise every summer for calendar year-end ERISA covered retirement plans and health and welfare plans that cover at least 100 participants.  While it may be easy enough to file an extension and hit the snooze button until October, now is great time for plan sponsors to start thinking about their 5500 obligations. Read more

Baby, What a Big Surprise! Right Before My Very Eyes…

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by Becky Achten

The No Surprises Act (part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act introduced earlier this year) is poised to eliminate some of the surprises that group health plan participants encounter from unexpected charges.  One way the new legislation intends to accomplish this is with Advanced Explanation of Benefits (EOBs). Read more

Hello. Is It Me You’re Looking For? Missing Participant Best Practices

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by Leslie Thomson

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has developed a list of best practices plan fiduciaries can implement to reduce missing participant issues and ensure participants and beneficiaries receive their plan benefits. According to EBSA, the first step in addressing any problem is knowing there is one. If your plan has one or more of the following “red flags,” you potentially have a missing participant issue:

  • More than a small number of missing or nonresponsive participants.
  • More than a small number of terminated vested participants who have reached normal retirement age but have not started receiving their pension benefits.
  • Missing, inaccurate, or incomplete contact information, census data, or both (e.g., incorrect or out-of-date mail, email, and other contact information, partial social security numbers, missing birthdates, or missing spousal information).
  • Absence of sound policies and procedures for handling mail returned marked “return to sender,” “wrong address,” “addressee unknown,” or otherwise, and undeliverable email.
  • Absence of sound policies and procedures for handling uncashed checks (as reflected for example, by the absence of an accounting journal or similar record of uncashed checks, a substantial number of stale uncashed distribution checks, or failure to reclaim stale uncashed check funds in distribution accounts).

Read more

Lean on Me . . . New Guidance on Federal COBRA Subsidy

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By Kevin Selzer

We posted on April 6th about the COBRA subsidy that was made available through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA).  In short, the law gives certain individuals who are entitled to COBRA due to a reduction of hours or involuntary termination of employment a 100% subsidy for health coverage that is continued under COBRA or equivalent state laws. Read more

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match … Based on my Student Loan Repayments

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by Beth Nedrow

For the last several years, a hot topic for policymakers has been how to address the nation’s massive student loan debt. At the same time, the pressure remains to develop ways to encourage Americans to save for their own retirement. Legislation is in the works that proposes marrying those two goals.

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee passed a bipartisan retirement reform bill, the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021 (or “SECURE 2.0,” to reflect its role in following in the footsteps of the SECURE Act passed in December 2019). Among other provisions, SECURE 2.0 would permit employers to make matching contributions under a 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan or SIMPLE IRA with respect to “qualified student loan payments.” Such arrangements have been touted as a way to make sure employees burdened with student loans don’t miss out on employer retirement contributions since they may be unable to afford both student loan repayments and elective deferrals to a retirement plan. Read more

These Boots Are Made For Walking…But If You Quit, You Might Not Get the COBRA Subsidy

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by Brenda Berg

April 8 UPDATE: The COBRA subsidy model notices referenced in this article are now available: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/laws-and-regulations/laws/cobra/premium-subsidy. Employers should be working with their COBRA administrator on how to notify eligible individuals about the subsidy.

The COBRA subsidy from the most recent COVID-19 stimulus bill – The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) – is now in effect. An assistance-eligible individual can have 100% of COBRA premiums subsidized for the periods beginning April 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021. All plan sponsors must offer the subsidy – it is not optional.

Eligible former employees and spouses/dependents (qualified beneficiaries) can receive the subsidy if they are already on COBRA. In addition, individuals who declined or dropped COBRA coverage can elect into COBRA under a “second bite at the apple” election process, if they are still in the remaining period of COBRA coverage that would have applied originally. Read more

But I Said No, No, No . . . New Requirement for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Benefits

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By Kevin Selzer

Employee benefit plans are subject to numerous laws that restrict, or at least limit, discrimination within the plans.  Many benefit plan nondiscrimination rules focus on whether highly and non-highly compensated employees are receiving equal treatment under those plans; however, the recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) is bringing some attention to an often-overlooked discrimination rule that prohibits group health plans from discriminating with respect to mental health and substance use disorder benefits (MH/SUD benefits). Read more

Tell Me More, Tell Me More…Fee Disclosures are Coming for Group Health Plans

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by Brenda Berg

One of the employee benefits items tucked into the recently-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”) will soon require group health plan service providers to issue fee disclosures.

Service providers to retirement plans have been required to provide fee disclosures – the ERISA 408(b)(2) disclosures – to plan sponsors for the past 10 years. The disclosures are part of the “reasonable compensation” exemption that keeps the arrangement from being a prohibited transaction. Until now, the 408(b)(2) fee disclosure rules have not applied to health and welfare plans; the “No Surprises Act” portion of the Act changes that next year. Read more