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While many of us were still in a food coma from the holidays, former President Trump signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the “CAA”) on December 27, 2020. The CAA includes provisions impacting both retirement plans and health and welfare plans. This blog focuses on the effective dates for the health and welfare changes. In later articles we will provide more substantive information.
Some of the CAA protections expand upon protections offered under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). For example, the CAA includes protections against balance billing for out-of-network emergency care, building on ACA’s emergency care rules. Other changes made by the CAA add completely new protections, such as no surprise bills by out-of-network providers at in-network hospitals and no surprise bills for air ambulance services. The CAA is akin to a “mini-ACA,” adding more p
Monday, December 21, 2020
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Employers have seen changes to almost every aspect of employee benefits in 2020, from state and local laws and new benefits legislation to an avalanche of guidance aimed at helping employers cope with the pandemic. The following is not a comprehensive review of every change, but a highlight of several key developments for employers to note as 2021 approaches.
Required Coverage of COVID-19 Vaccines
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), non-grandfathered group health plans are required to cover certain preventive care services without cost-sharing. The general deadline for implementation of new preventive recommendations and guidelines is the plan year beginning one year after the new recommendation or guideline is issued. Prior ACA regulations provide for coverage only for vaccines listed for “routine use” and generally allowed plans to apply cost-sharing if the preventive service is delivered by an out-of-network provider.GET THE LAT
A Chronology of COVID-19 Relief for ERISA Plans
In 2020, the employee benefits world was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The following chronology highlights the ongoing relief provided by legislation, regulatory action, and other agency guidance to assist ERISA plan participants, fiduciaries, and sponsors during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic through November 30, 2020. (Superseded agency guidance has been omitted.) We provide a number of links to articles on our blog, Benefits Law Update, which offer additional information about many of these important regulatory changes.
Much of the guidance is temporary, with effects limited to 2020. However, with the pandemic and the declared national emergency extending into 2021, we anticipate that some of these measures will be renewed or extended, and similar relief may be offered in the year to come.
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While COVID-19 dominated the health benefits landscape, there were other important developments demanding attention. Our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group details both pandemic-related issues, from testing to vaccinations, and regulatory issues, from the Affordable Care Act to new regulations.
COVID-19: ACA, CARES Act, OTC, EAP, HSA, HDHP, COBRA, and more
New for 2020: two types of HRAs, electronic disclosure, SBC template, transparency rules
Benefit plan inflation adjusted amounts for 2021 for popular benefits
The year 2020 has been like no other. Congress and regulatory agencies entered a high gear of sorts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Congressional and agency efforts have provided some welcome relief, as well as several new requirements for health plans and a variety of non-pandemic-related developments.
that s what i keep talking about. i said the cost of our policies have gone up but the costs of end users have skyrocketed. you can no longer use cafeteria plans to buy aspirin or to buy cold medicine, things like this. there s so many changes happening that the cost of the policy for the individual is i believe it s in the design of the system so that, one, either the employer is not going to be able to afford it. or two, the employee is not going to be able to use the policy. they are going to revert back to everybody has to go to a single payer system. we re not hearing that anymore. that was obama care in the first place. obama care is the first step to singer payer system. lets drive everybody broke, employers can t afford the policy so we re all on a federal plan. that s the way i feel. stand by, another issue coming up. our businesses, some of them drowning in regulations. our new obama administration