Team Rewards

Employers that offer prescription drug benefits are required to provide an annual notice to all Medicare-eligible plan participants and qualified beneficiaries before October 15th of each year, the start of the Medicare open enrollment period. Most send it to all participants.

Last year's Consolidated Appropriations Act and this year's American Rescue Plan provided employers optional flexibility for their Dependent Care FSAs. But they also created a potential tax hurdle. The IRS fixed (most all of) it.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act contains many benefit changes, all of which are optional on the part of the employer. We know this is coming long after open enrollment has ended for most plans, but employers will want to pay close attention and decide which (if any) they'd like to adopt.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) was signed into law on March 27, 2020. It's a mammoth bill of over 880 pages, and contains many employee benefit-related items. This post, the second in the CARES Act series deals with the qualified retirement plan provisions in the Act.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act has now been signed into law on March 27, 2020. It is a mammoth bill of over 880 pages, and contains many employee benefit related items. This post deals with two health and welfare items: over-the-counter drugs and telemedicine.

On February 26, 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled in Intel Corporation Investment Policy Committee v Sulyma that under ERISA a plan participant "must have 'actual knowledge' of the information contained in required disclosures he receives but does not read or cannot recall reading."

Much later than usual, the IRS released the 2020 retirement plan contribution limits. Earlier this year, they also released the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) limits. We now also have the cafeteria plan, adoption credit, and transit benefit limits as well.

The US Department of Labor has suddenly realized that employers and their employees use a newfangled means of communicating in the real world: e-mail and the internet. In a bold move proposing their latest regulations he DOL has proposed new rules.

Since 2009, special enrollment rights to immediately enroll in an employer's health plan arise if an individual becomes eligible for a state premium assistance subsidy under Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act ("CHIPRA", or often shortened to CHIP).

Starting in 2007, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA) requires that the IRS release the upcoming year’s new HSA limits prior to June 1st.

Under the ACA, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) was established. The funding mechanism for PCORI was a fee on group health plans, including certain employer-contributed health care flexible spending accounts (employer FSAs) and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs).

Kushner President and CEO Gary Kushner was invited to present a 5-minute (and exactly 5 minutes) speech at this year's DisruptHR conference. His topic was on "Total Rewards: Why are We Doing What We're Doing?" Here's the video of that talk.