Employee Benefits Blog

Subsidized Post-Termination COBRA Benefits

Nancy Campbell recently wrote a newsletter that discussed how health care reform impacts COBRA. One of the issues that Nancy addressed is subsidized COBRA and severance arrangements. The purpose of this blog is to dive deeper into the issues employers should consider when providing subsidized post-termination COBRA benefits. • Providing Post-Termination Medical Benefits on an After-Tax […]

July 31, 2014 | 3 min read | Tagged: 409A, COBRA, Health Care, health care reform, health plans, post-termination medical, severance

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Greg Gautam Partner

The IRS Meant What It Said in Notice 2013-54 – Employers Who Pay For Individual Health Insurance Policies for Employees On a Pre-Tax Basis Face Massive Penalties

In our 2013 End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” List  Part 2 – Health and Welfare I did a lengthy summary of the various changes required to employer health care arrangements on account of IRS Notice 2013-54.  On May 6, 2014, I followed that up with a blog entitled Non-integrated health reimbursement arrangements (whatever […]

June 11, 2014 | 3 min read | Tagged: DOL, Health Care, health care reform, health plans, IRS, non-integrated HRA, Notice 2013-54

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Nancy K. Campbell Of Counsel

Final Regs on Health Care Reform Large Employer Penalties May Help Employers Who Hire Employees From Staffing Firms

As explained in my Checklist for Employers, a large employer will have to pay a subsection (a) penalty for any month if it does not offer “minimum essential coverage” (“MEC”) to substantially all (i.e., 70% for 2015 and 95% for future years) of its full-time employees and their dependents if one or more full-time employees […]

April 1, 2014 | 3 min read | Tagged: Affordable Care Act, final regulations, Health Care, health care reform, health plans, large employer penalties, MEC, minimum essential coverage

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Nancy K. Campbell Of Counsel

Do you know who is in your controlled group? Employers need to know for purposes of the large employer shared responsibility penalties

Most employee benefit plans are subject to nondiscrimination rules.  In order to prevent employers from breaking apart companies in order to avoid these nondiscrimination rules, most employee benefit plans, in performing nondiscrimination testing, must take into account related businesses (i.e., controlled groups and affiliated service groups). I’ve been blogging recently about the large employer shared […]

March 26, 2014 | 3 min read | Tagged: Affordable Care Act, controlled group, Health Care, health care reform, health plans, large employer penalties

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Nancy K. Campbell Of Counsel

Non-integrated health reimbursement arrangements (whatever they are called) are subject to $36,500 per-participant per-year penalty

Last fall the IRS and DOL issued nearly identical guidance, IRS Notice 2013-54 and DOL Technical Release 2013-03, explaining how certain Health Care Reform Act rules apply to health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”).  Notice 2013-54 is not good news for most HRAs, also called medical expense reimbursement plans (“MERPs”).  Executive physical plans are often structured as […]

March 19, 2014 | 3 min read | Tagged: Affordable Care Act, Health Care, health care reform, health plans, health reimbursement arrangements, HRAs

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Nancy K. Campbell Of Counsel

Don’t Lose Your Money – Employers Can Now Allow Their Employees to Carryover up to $500 of their Health FSA

Late last year, the IRS announced that it was modifying the health flexible spending account (“health FSA”) “use-it-or-lose-it” rule.  Prior to the change, employees had to use the full balance of their health FSA by the end of the plan year or the money would be forfeited.  This rule sometimes forced employees to unnecessarily spend […]

February 1, 2014 | 2 min read | Tagged: Carryover, Health Care, Health FSA, IRS, Use-it-or-Lose-it

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Kevin Hogan Former Associate