ERISA-ACA Compliance

Employers who maintain a retirement plan for their employees are very familiar with the requirement to file an IRS Form 5500 and associated schedules each year.  However, many employers are unaware that they may also have a 5500 requirement for their health and welfare plans.

The Affordable Care Act set affordability limits on group health plans. It also set significant penalties for failure to offer affordable plans. Potentially there's a huge increase coming in 2024 for employers' share of the costs.

In response to the pandemic, the IRS issued rules in 2020 that COVID-19 testing and treatment benefits could be provided by a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) without a deductible or with a deductible below the HDHP minimum deductible. With the end of the emergency, those rules are now changed.

As we explained in 2020, 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.”

The COVID-19 Outbreak Period has had numerous impacts upon benefit plans, extending timelines with which plans had to perform certain activities.

President Biden declared the end of the National Emergency effective May 11, 2023. Employers must plan now for the end of the Outbreak Period.

Yes Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus(e).

The telehealth exception to the rule that in order to make an HSA contribution, a participant must be enrolled in a High Deductible Health Plan requiring non-preventive benefits to meet the plan's deductible is extended.

It must be the holiday season. The IRS recently finalized new regulations providing that ALEs must furnish the Forms 1095-C to employees no later than 30 days after January 31st of each year. In the past, forms were due by January 31st unless an employer asked for an extension. It's now automatic.

The IRS has now released all of the 2023 benefit limits on October 21, 2022. Earlier this year, they also released the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) limits.

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 PCORI annual filing and fees were reinstated through 2029. That means that all employers (or their insurers in fully insured group health plans) must file the annual IRS Form 720 by July 31st of each year, regardless of their plan year.

The IRS has now released all of the 2022 benefit limits. Earlier this year, they also released the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) limits.