Department of Labor increases ERISA penalties, provides insight into 2021 enforcement activity
ERISA penalties adjusted for inflation The Department of Labor’s (DOL) enforcement wing, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), recently made inflation adjustments to penalty amounts for various ERISA welfare benefit plan violations. Federal regulations...
What state legislatures don’t understand about health savings accounts – Oklahoma is the latest to pass legislation inadvertently barring HSA contributions
When I was a boy, my dad used to tell me, “If you don’t know what you’re doing, just ask. Better to ask, son, than to have to come back later to fix something you messed up.” It’s a mantra that state legislators should take to heart. Oklahoma is the latest state to...
HR Compliance Check: With National Breastfeeding Month around the corner, be sure your lactation break policy and related facility accommodations are compliant
August is National Breastfeeding Month. With many employers starting to see employees migrating back to the office with more regularity, addressing lactation breaks and related accommodations may be something you haven’t had to give much thought to during this time of...
HHS announces ACA maximum out-of-pocket limit for 2022; allows for marketplace enrollment when COBRA subsidy ends
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced the inflation-adjusted maximum out-of-pocket (OOP) limits that will apply to non-grandfathered plans for plan years beginning in 2022. The OOP limit includes the plan’s deductible and cost sharing...
Say it isn’t so! Does FMLA apply when an asymptomatic employee tests positive for COVID-19 but cannot work from home?
In a pending Pennsylvania case (Payne v. Woods Services, Inc.), the trial court hints that the FMLA may apply in the case of an employee who is asymptomatic but tests positive for COVID-19 and is unable to telework. While the case survived a motion to dismiss, the...
“For every cloud, a silver lining.” San Francisco postpones HCSO reporting deadline
Amidst the pall of the pandemic, we celebrate little rays of sunshine. Here’s one: San Francisco has postponed its Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO) annual reporting obligation for the 2020 calendar year from the end of this month to at least Oct. 31, 2021....
“You just missed the exit” (Where’s the guidance on ending the outbreak period?)
You’re driving along, your partner’s in the passenger seat playing navigator. You drive smoothly past an exit only to have said partner exclaim, “Hey! Where are you going! You missed our exit!” Your reply: “Well you’re in charge of directions! Give me a little heads...
ACA litigation merry-go-round: ‘Round and ’round we go…
The Department’s new position, in a case currently pending with the court, is that not only is the ACA’s individual mandate constitutional but that if the court concludes the mandate is not constitutional, it can and should be severed from the rest of the ACA so as to not to take the entire ACA down with it.
Department of Labor adjusts penalty amounts, summarizes 2020 enforcement actions
ERISA penalties adjusted for inflation The Department of Labor’s (DOL) enforcement wing, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), recently released inflation-adjusted penalty amounts for various ERISA welfare benefit plan violations. Federal regulations...
Finally, some good news! California’s Franchise Tax Board delays individual mandate reporting and disclosure deadlines
Well, 2021 is off to a contentious start politically, and coronavirus infections are surging again, but we have good news from California! The state’s taxing authority, the Franchise Tax Board (FTB), has extended or effectively extended the deadlines in 2021 for...
Furloughs, layoffs, ACA measurement periods and next year’s medical plan eligibility: Chaos gives way to confusion
As if 2020 has not already wrought enough chaos, many employers are finding that their medical plan eligibility rules are about to add insult to their employees’ injuries triggered by furloughs, layoffs or reduced work hours in 2020. Those reduced hours in 2020 may...
Tri-agency rules expound on vaccine coverage mandate
Federal regulators have issued rules supplying the first interpretive gloss on the group health plan coverage mandate, imposed by Congressional legislation last spring, to provide coronavirus vaccines with no cost sharing. Consistent with the legislation, the new...
IRS gives employers more time to furnish 1095-Cs to employees, HHS extends national health emergency
The IRS has again (as it has in past years) extended the deadline to furnish Forms 1095-C to Affordable Care Act (ACA) full-time employees. The Service has moved the deadline to furnish the forms for 2020 from Jan. 31 to March 2, 2021. The deadlines for filing those...
How do you apply FMLA+ given new school year policies?
Updated Aug. 28, 2020 with additional DOL guidance released after original publication With the new school year upon us, parents are faced with new child care concerns due to the continued risk of COVID-19 transmission and varying approaches to that risk by different...