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Providing incentives for employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine continues to be on the minds of organizations as vaccinations pick up speed. However, concerns about privacy and the shifting positions on wellness program regulation has left many employers wary about implementing more robust incentives. According to Bloomberg, two GOP members of Congress are urging…

Employers are grappling with employee benefit issues in response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (“COVID-19”).  Efforts are being made to pave the way for widespread testing by eliminating cost barriers such as deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, or High Deductible Health Plan restrictions to ensure employees and their families are proactively being diagnosed once symptoms present, to…

Employers that sponsor group health plans (medical, dental, vision, HFSA) are used to negotiating detailed administrative services agreements with vendors that provide services to those plans. Many also are familiar with “business associate agreements” required under HIPAA that must be in place with certain vendors, such as third-party claims administrators (TPAs), wellness program vendors, benefits…

Since filing multiple litigations against employers concerning their wellness programs, including seeking a temporary restraining order against Honeywell International, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has faced a significant amount of push back from many U.S. companies, their CEOs and other organizations.

The reason … programs designed to be compliant with the wellness …

The Department of Labor (DOL) has just published a series of FAQs regarding premium reimbursement arrangements.  Specifically, the FAQs address the following arrangements:

An arrangement in which an employer offers an employee cash to reimburse the purchase of an individual market policy.

Where an employer provides cash reimbursement for the purchase of an…

Proposed regulations published on March 21, 2013 addressed not only the 90-day waiting period rule discussed below but also the eventual elimination of notices of creditable coverage under HIPAA’s preexisting condition exclusions rules.

The 2010 health care reform law prohibits group health plans from imposing preexisting condition exclusions, effective for plan years beginning on or…