Health & Welfare

In Private Letter Ruling 202023001, the IRS has ruled that collectively bargained employees can allocate employer contributions between a profit sharing plan and a health reimbursement arrangement (“HRA”) without creating a 401(k) plan or violating the rules for HRAs.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued Revenue Procedure 2020-36 to implement the 2021 index adjustments for certain Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) contribution percentages used to determine affordability under the employer shared responsibility mandate.

The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued additional Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on the administration of Emergency Paid Sick Leave (“EPSL”) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave (“EFMLA”) under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”).

The Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), and the IRS (collectively, the “Agencies”) have issued proposed regulations that would provide greater flexibility for plan sponsors that wish to retain their group health plans’ “grandfathered” status under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).

The Department of Labor (“DOL”) has issued Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2020-4 ("FAB 2020-4") to provide guidance on when an employee may take paid leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) to care for his or her child due to the closure of a summer camp, or other summer program for COVID-19 related reasons.

The Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, and the IRS (the “Agencies”) have issued Frequently Asked Questions #43 (“FAQs”) regarding implementation of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (the “FFCRA”), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), and other health coverage issues related to COVID-19.

Although the penalties under the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate were eliminated in 2017, Massachusetts has continued its own individual health insurance mandate as well as associated penalties for failure to comply. 

The Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced on June 12, 2020, as part of a new final regulation (the “Final Rule”), that it had eliminated Obama-era nondiscrimination rules under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) that defined the term “on the basis of sex” to include gender identity, sex stereotyping, and pregnancy, reasoning that this interpretation was an ...

The IRS has issued Notice 2020-46 to explain the tax consequences of employer-based COVID-19 leave donation programs.

HHS and IRS have announced inflation-adjusted out-of-pocket (“OOP”) limits that will apply to non-grandfathered health plans for plan years beginning in 2021, and the indexed PCORI fee. The OOP limit includes the plan’s deductible and cost-sharing amounts for benefits that are considered essential health benefits (“EHBs”) under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”).