Kushner & Company Blog

On October 2, 2020, citing employers’ and insurers’ need for additional time to provide individuals with the Form 1095-Bs and 1095-Cs, the IRS issued Notice 2020-76 extending the deadline from January 31, 2021 to March 2, 2021 to provide those forms.

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.

The same IRS Notice (2020-68) that addresses Qualified Birth or Adoption Distributions (QBADs) also deals with how to handle the SECURE Act’s inclusion of long-term part-time employees and their eligibility for 401(k) plans.

While QBADs have been permissible since January 2020 under the SECURE Act, many employers have been waiting for some IRS guidance on how these distributions would be implemented before making a decision as to whether to include a QBAD as a plan feature. IRS Notice 2020-68 does that (and a bit more).

Kushner & Company, an international HR strategy and employee benefits consulting and administration firm, has announced the appointment of its new CEO, Jennifer Alfieri.

Much has been written about the calculations necessary to compute the amount of payroll costs that must be a major component of PPP loan forgiveness. In fact, at least 60% of the forgivable amount (previously 75%) must come from allowable payroll costs. So what constitutes payroll costs?

Like a horror movie scene, just when you thought that the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) was finally funded from the plan years that began before October 1, 2018, it's baaaaaaacccckkkkk. And that means employers have new filings to make and fees to pay.

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. On May 21, 2020, the IRS released the 2021 information.

In two new IRS Notices (2020-29 and 2020-33), there are temporary changes to the rules governing Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) through 2020 due to COVID-19, and permanent changes to both FSAs and certain Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) that will begin this year. 

The DOL and IRS issued a Notice that announced a "pause" in the timelines that affect many COBRA and HIPAA Special Enrollment Period timelines during the COVID-19 National Emergency pandemic. It also provides for additional timelines relating to all health and welfare plan claim filings and appeals.

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.