Recently released IRS notice 2019-50 has reestablished the health insurer tax (HIT) for 2020, which had been previously suspended for 2019. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposes an annual, non-deductible health insurer tax on insurance companies that offer fully-insured plans and applies to all insurers offering fully-insured coverage, including plans sold via the exchange or [...]
Funded Plans: All “funded” welfare plans covered by ERISA must file a Form 5500. A “funded” plan is one where funds are set aside in a custodial account or trust fund for the exclusive benefit of plan participants. The type of Form 5500 (Form 5500 vs. Form 5500-SF) filed is determined by the number of [...]
Missing, incorrect, or late information regarding eligibility can lead to mistaken interpretation of coverage, no coverage/denied claims, or incorrect participant information. These can all lead to overbilling, underbilling, and claim payment errors. Additionally, eligibility errors can “over-obligate” the plan by allowing an invalid member to linger on the plan, for example: enrolling in COBRA for [...]
On July 23, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Procedure 2019-29 which indexes the contribution percentages for 2020 for purposes of determining affordability of an employer’s plan under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). For plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, employer-sponsored coverage will be considered affordable if the employee’s required contribution for self-only [...]
On June 25, 2019, Governor Ned Lamont signed into law Connecticut’s Paid Family and Medical Leave law. Below are some highlights from the new law: Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave Law Key Dates June 25, 2019 – CT Governor signs legislation into law; January 1, 2021 - Employee payroll tax begins; January 1, 2022 [...]
The Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave law (effective in 2021) requires employers to start making financial contributions to support the paid leave program starting on July 1, 2019. The law allows employers to deduct a part of the required contribution from each employee’s wages (along with an employer contribution*) to fund the program. The initial contributions [...]
Pre-Tax Transportation Fringe Benefits: On March 1, 2019, New Jersey becomes the first state to require employers to offer pre-tax transportation benefits to employees. A pre-tax transportation fringe benefit is a benefit that allows an employee to set aside wages on a pre-tax basis, which is then only made available to the employee for the [...]
The Internal Revenue Service released its 2020 Health Savings Account Inflation Adjustment Limits. A comparison of the 2019 and 2020 limits are listed below. The ACA maximum out-of-pocket limits have also been adjusted. The ACA uses a different adjustment calculation than the IRS when setting HSA limits year over year.
For 2019, the annual fee to fund the federal Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), paid by employers that sponsor self-insured health plans and by commercial group health insurance providers, will go up by about .06 cents per employee or dependent enrolled in the health plan. The fees are due by July 31. The chart below [...]
The newly created Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave released updated draft regulations on March 29th for the new Paid Family and Medical Leave law. The Department will hold several listening sessions in May throughout the state before issuing final regulations sometime before July, 2019. Below is an outline of the draft regulations with pertinent [...]
