ERISA-ACA Compliance

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 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.

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).

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

Almost every organization that sponsors employee benefit plans must file IRS Form 5500. Of course, there are different rules and requirements for 5500s based on the type of plan being reported. In today’s post, we’re going to look at a few of the common questions that we receive about 5500s.

The IRS has now released all of the 2024 benefit limits. These include both the cafeteria and health plan limits as well as all of the qualified retirement plan limits.

Earlier this year, they also released the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) limits.

When it comes to FSA, HRA, and HSA administration, plans are technical and require significant oversight. But by working with a highly skilled third-party administrator (TPA), employers can be supported in these tasks, assured their plans run smoothly, and in compliance with all requirements.

Medicare requires all employers that offer prescription drug benefits to provide an annual notice to all Medicare-eligible plan participants and qualified beneficiaries before October 15th of each year. Here's all you need to know about that filing.