On November 13, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2025-67, which sets forth the 2026 cost-of-living adjustments affecting dollar limits on benefits and contributions for qualified retirement plans. The IRS also announced the health savings account (HSA) and high deductible health plan (HDHP) annual deductible and out-of-pocket expense adjustments earlier this year
Understanding Employee Benefits and key developments in the employee benefits field and items of interest to our clients. MORE
Health Plans
Unpacking the One Big Beautiful Bill’s Employee Benefit Provisions
By Lisa Rippey & Stephanie Schmid on
On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“Act”), a sweeping tax and spending package, which includes provisions that impact employee benefit plans. These changes affect health savings account (“HSA”) eligibility, telehealth services, dependent care assistance limits, and other fringe benefits. The telehealth relief is effective in 2025…
Less Paperwork, More Peace of Mind: New ACA Laws Lighten Employers’ Reporting Load
By Lisa Rippey & Stephanie Schmid on
On December 23, 2024, President Biden signed into law two important pieces of legislation that aim to ease the administrative and reporting burdens on health plan sponsors and insurance providers under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Paperwork Burden Reduction Act and the Employer Reporting Improvement Act bring significant changes to the way employers must…
DOL Settlements Remind Employers to Avoid Collecting Premiums Until Evidence of Insurability is Approved
By Sam Butler & Audrey Fenske on
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced two settlements with major insurance companies this month that highlight the importance of employers avoiding the collection of group life insurance premiums from employees until the insurer has approved them for coverage, including receipt and approval of required evidence of insurability (EOI). These settlements follow two similar agreements…
Departments Provide Relief for 2020 and 2021 Prescription Drug Reporting
By Lisa Rippey & Stephanie Schmid on
On December 23, 2022, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury (the “Departments”) issued FAQs providing relief from prescription drug and health care spending reporting requirements. The FAQs are available here: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/faqs/aca-part-56.
As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, group health plans and issuers must annually report to the Departments…
IRS Guidance on Coronavirus Relief for FSAs, DCAPs, and Cafeteria Plans: Almost Anything Goes
By Audrey Fenske & Stephanie Schmid on
On February 18, 2021, the IRS issued Notice 2021-15, clarifying temporary special rules for cafeteria plans, health flexible spending accounts (“FSAs”), and dependent care assistance programs (“DCAPs”) that were included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (“CAA”), enacted on December 27, 2020. The Notice also adds temporary opportunities to make changes in health plan coverage under…
Health Plans Should Make Eligibility Determinations Quickly
By Sam Butler on
In an opinion released earlier this month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a self-insured health plan was not entitled to a refund of the nearly $1.7 million it paid to two Wisconsin hospitals for treatment administered to a participant’s newborn child, despite the plan’s ultimately concluding the newborn…