During the next several weeks, we will publish a series of articles that dive deeply into “health plan hygiene” relating to health and welfare benefit plan fiduciary issues and how employers can protect themselves in this quickly evolving area.

Section 408(b)(2) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires certain disclosures regarding

America’s cultural wars may be opening up a new front, and group health plans may be caught in the fray. Since the US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs ended almost fifty years of constitutional protection for abortion rights and gave states the authority to regulate abortion, lawmakers (or citizens) have either enacted new prohibitions on

As discussed in a previous blog, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent nonprofit research organization that funds comparative clinical research, among other things. PCORI is funded through annual fees — provided for in the Affordable Care Act — paid by insurers of fully insured health plans and sponsors of self-insured health

Transgender protections and rights in the workplace are currently the subject of much confusion.  This issue extends to employer-sponsored health plans.  Whether an employer-sponsored health plan must cover gender-affirming care is complicated and depends, in part, on whether the employer’s health plan is fully-insured or self-insured. 

Fully-Insured Plans

Fully-insured employer-sponsored health plans are subject to