Articles Discussing General Topics In Employee Benefits.

In late April 2017, the IRS issued a Memorandum for Employee Plans (EP) Examinations Employees providing two alternatives for computing the maximum participant loan amount when the participant has prior loans. Prior to this Memorandum, the law was not clear concerning how to compute the maximum loan amount where a participant had taken a previous loan during the year.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), a lawmaker known for closely monitoring the changing nature of work, has introduced in the Senate legislation to promote innovative ways to offer portable benefits to workers in the on-demand economy. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives. The Portable Benefits for Independent Workers Pilot Program Act would direct the Labor Secretary to provide $20 million in grants to states, local governments, or nonprofit organizations that analyze and/or design the means and methods of delivering employment benefits that independent workers can maintain as they move from job to job.

Data Security Safeguards. When ERISA was enacted in 1974, it was not known the extent to which technology would allow us to maintain and transmit employee benefit plan data electronically. Learn how today’s technology and the changing data privacy rules affect employee benefit plans and data security.

We are aware that employers are being marketed various types of benefit arrangements designed to reduce the employer’s tax obligations by using a combination of wellness programs, voluntary benefits, and cafeteria plans. Not surprisingly, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has taken interest in these designs and has provided guidance which may dampen the enthusiasm for such arrangements.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) publicized last year its stepped up enforcement efforts inquiring about procedures used by larger defined benefit plans for locating, and then beginning payment of benefits to, terminated vested participants who have reached the age when the plan mandates benefits must begin. Those audit activities are continuing.

In Halo v. Yale Health Plan, decided in April of 2016, the Second Circuit expressly rejected the “substantial compliance” doctrine with respect to alleged violations of the ERISA Claims Procedure regulation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued final regulations (CMS-3819-F) that will make substantial changes to the Medicare home health agency Conditions of Participation (CoPs). These sweeping changes take effect July 13, 2017, and represent the most comprehensive changes to the CoPs since 1989.

As many of you know, currently pending before the Supreme Court are consolidated cases from the Third, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits holding that, for religiously affiliated employers, employee benefits plans must initially be established by a church for the plans to be exempt from ERISA as “church plans.”

HHS and ACA Enforcement under the Influence of a Trump Administration. A summary of some of the essential facts about enforcement of the Affordable Care Act by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Passed swiftly by Congress, the 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 34) seeks to hasten cures for killer diseases, among other things. President Obama is expected to sign the bill on Tuesday, December 13.

We know that data analytics is being used to influence a wide range of things such as the pair of shoes one might want to buy or what news is “trending” on Facebook. Similar tools are being applied to employer-sponsored group health plans. According to a recent HealthcareITnews article, vendors such as Advanced Plan for Health (APH) are using predictive modeling functionality to support population health management.

In IRS Notice 2016-70, the IRS announced a 30-day automatic extension for the furnishing of 2016 IRS Forms 1095-B (Health Coverage) and 1095-C (Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage), from January 31, 2017 to March 2, 2017. This extension was made in response to requests by employers, insurers, and other providers of health insurance coverage that additional time be provided to gather and analyze the information required to complete the Forms. Notwithstanding the extension, the IRS encourages employers and other coverage providers to furnish the Forms as soon as possible.

It has been reported that infamous bank robber, Slick Willie Sutton, once said, “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.” Data thieves, understandably, have a similar strategy – go where the data is.

Last week I made a presentation in the Omaha office of Jackson Lewis with the above title. I thought it might be helpful to outline the basic points of my presentation.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced its cost-of-living adjustments applicable to dollar limitations for retirement plans and Social Security generally effective for Tax Year 2017 (see IR-2016-141). Most notably, the limitation on annual salary deferrals into a 401(k) plan (along with the other retirement plan limitations) remains unchanged. The dollar limits are as follows: