ERISA-ACA Compliance

The Affordable Care Act set affordability limits on group health plans. It also set significant penalties for failure to offer affordable plans. You need to use the new calculations to determine affordability of your plans.

Posted on January 29, 2025 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Benefit Card, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Health and Welfare Team

When it seems like every letter of the alphabet has been thrown at you, we want to help you understand the similarities and differences between all of these different types of health care accounts available to employers to offer to their employees.

Posted on January 24, 2025 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
401(k), 
Administration, 
Benefit Card, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Excepted Benefit HRA (EBHRA), 
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), 
FSA / HSA / HRA, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA), 
Health Savings Accounts (HSA), 
HR Compliance, 
Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA)

Apparently, when Christmas and Chanukah fall on the same day, Congress and the President believe a gift to employers is in order.

Two bills were signed into law on December 23, 2024. These two Acts change the requirements for distributing IRS Form 1095s to all employees, and much more.

Posted on December 31, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Total Rewards

Employers that offer High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) that provide telehealth benefits before the participant meets their annual deductible may need to amend their plan prior to their plan's year-end. The reason for this is that...

Posted on December 5, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Administration, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
COBRA, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
Health Savings Accounts (HSA), 
HR Compliance, 
Summary Plan Descriptions

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.

Posted on September 23, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Administration, 
All Articles, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
HR Compliance, 
Total Rewards

The IRS has released the 2025 ACA affordability percentage. Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) are subject to the affordability rules of the ACA. ALEs are defined as those employers who have 50 or more full-time equivalents during the appropriate Measurement Period.

Posted on September 9, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Health and Welfare Team

We're often asked if vitamins of any kind (multivitamin, specific vitamins [such as B12, D, or K for example]) or others are eligible for reimbursement under a health care flexible spending account (FSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA).

Posted on June 19, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Administration, 
Benefit Card, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), 
FSA / HSA / HRA, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA), 
Talent Management, 
Team Rewards

Spousal Incentive HRAs aren't new. But they're getting new exposure as a means of helping employers control health care costs, increasing employee recruiting and retention, and aiding employees when they have choices between two group health plans to elect a spouse's coverage over the employer's.

Posted on June 12, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
FSA / HSA / HRA, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA), 
Team Rewards, 
Total Rewards

As we explained previously, funding for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) was supposed to end with filings and fees for plan years that began before October 1, 2019. In the words of the great philosopher Emily Litella, “Never mind.”

Posted on June 10, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Administration, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
COBRA, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
FSA / HSA / HRA, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA)

In a CNBC article, Kushner & Company President Gary Kushner is quoted on the issue of coverage of newer weight-loss prescription drugs in small to mid-sized employers' group health plans.

Posted on May 31, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Administration, 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA), 
FSA / HSA / HRA, 
Health and Welfare Team, 
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA), 
Health Savings Accounts (HSA), 
Qualified Small Employer HRA (QSEHRA), 
Total Rewards

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. Thus, we now have the 2025 HSA limits.

Posted on May 9, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Excepted Benefit HRA (EBHRA), 
Health Savings Accounts (HSA)

Given all the recent news about student loans and the impact on both individual lives and the economy as a whole, we thought it was time to review what an employer can do to assist those either currently in post-secondary or technical schools as well as those who have graduated and now have loans.

Posted on April 15, 2024 By Kushner & Company
Categories: 
401(k), 
Benefits, 
Blog, 
Defined Contribution Plan, 
Educational Assistance, 
ERISA-ACA Compliance, 
Learning and Development, 
Team Rewards, 
Total Rewards, 
Work / Life Balance