Employee Benefits Law Report

Tag Archives: healthcare reform

October 1, 2013 Health Care Reform Exchange Notice Deadline for All Employers Subject to the FLSA

As a reminder, under health care reform, all employers to which the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) applies, not just “applicable large employers,” are required to distribute health care exchange notices to their employees by October 1, 2013. Given that health care reform is chock full of big penalties, it puzzled me that I couldn’t find a penalty for failure to provide this notice. Last week, the DOL published Frequently Asked Questions that confirmed, “there is no fine or penalty under the law for failing to provide the notice.” Nonetheless, health care reform involves so many inter-related statutes, pages of guidance, government agencies and interested parties that we encourage employers to comply to demonstrate good faith, and to avoid potential alternative theories of liability.… Continue Reading

Health Care Reform Reaches The Supreme Court – Two Days Down, One to Go

The Supreme Court on Tuesday, March 27 heard oral arguments on the most pivotal issue concerning the implementation of the health care reform legislation. The issue before the Court on Tuesday concerned the constitutionality of the individual mandate that is at the heart of the recent legislation (i.e., the obligation imposed on all covered individuals, effective in 2014, to either purchase health care coverage or pay a penalty for refusing to do so). … Continue Reading

Health Care Plan Summary of Benefits and Coverage Distribution Deadline Quickly Approaching for Employers

Employers who maintain health plans may recall from our prior blogs (see "Health Care Plan Annual Enrollment Triage: The Summary of Benefits and Coverage Standards Have Not Been Issued Yet and May Just Have to Wait" and "Health Care Plan Summary of Benefits and Coverage: Still No Final Model, But Substantial Excise Taxes are Looming Anyway") that they would soon need to address the new Summary of Benefits and Coverage ("SBC"), although urgent action would need to wait until the issuance of final guidance. Well, the wait is over.… Continue Reading

Health Care Reform Update: Grandfathered Plans

The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has published Frequently Asked Questions describing the scope of the anti-abuse rule (available here). Generally, transferring employees from one grandfathered plan or benefit package (transferor plan) to another (transferee plan) will cause the transferee plan to relinquish grandfather status if amending the transferor plan to replicate the terms of the transferee … Continue Reading
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