resources
July 23, 2018
What Group Plan Sponsors Need to Know about ERISA
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was signed in 1974. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is the agency responsible for administering and enforcing this law. For many years, most of ERISA’s requirements applied to pension plans. However, in recent years that has changed and ...
July 22, 2018
Advocacy in Action | Unexpected Bill
A member received a bill from the lab for $2,152.89. The member did not understand why she was receiving the bill and mentioned the issue to her co-worker. Her co-worker mentioned her Patient Advocate had helped her resolve a similar issue. The member called her Patient Advocate about the lab ...
July 9, 2018
Extension of Maximum COBRA Coverage Period | Brinson Compliance
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) requires employers to offer covered employees who lose their health benefits due to a qualifying event to continue group health benefits for a limited time at the employee’s own cost. The length of the COBRA coverage period ...
July 6, 2018
Compliance Recap | June 2018
June was a relatively quiet month in the employee benefits world. The U.S. Department of Labor issued final regulations regarding association health plans. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a response in ongoing litigation regarding the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and ...
July 5, 2018
Health Savings Accounts: What You Need to Know
A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-exempt trust or custodial account set up with a qualified HSA trustee (such as a bank or insurance company) that is used to pay or reimburse certain medical expenses. HSAs were first available as of January 1, 2004, and have grown greatly in popularity. ...
June 22, 2018
FAQ about the PCORI Fee Due July 31
You have a PCORI filing and payment obligation if: You sponsor a major medical self-insured health plan You sponsor a fully-insured health plan and a self-funded health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) You sponsor a health plan that meets minimum essential coverage only (MEC) Employer-sponsored ...
June 21, 2018
DOL Issues Final Regulations Regarding Association Health Plans
On June 19, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published Frequently Asked Questions About Association Health Plans (AHPs) and issued a final rule that broadens the definition of “employer” and the provisions under which an employer group or association may be treated as an “employer” ...
June 8, 2018
Compliance Recap | May 2018
May was a relatively busy month in the employee benefits world. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released the indexed threshold that employers will use in 2019 to determine coverage affordability. The IRS also issued inflation-adjusted amounts that will apply to health savings accounts for ...
June 8, 2018
Frequently Asked Questions about the W-2 Reporting Requirement
Updated June 2018 Employers must include the value of “employer-sponsored group health coverage” on their employees’ W-2s. However, employers that issued fewer than 250 W-2s during the prior calendar year are currently exempt from this requirement. For example, an employer that issued 250 or ...
June 5, 2018
Advocacy in Action | Preventative vs. Diagnostic Claims
A member contacted her Patient Advocate to find out why she was being billed $753.00 for her routine preventative colonoscopy. This was the first time she had ever had a colonoscopy and her doctor told her it was a preventative test. She told her Patient Advocate she had just lost her mother ...
