On September 9, 2021, President Biden announced a comprehensive national strategy to combat COVID-19. The strategy includes a plan to vaccinate the unvaccinated, which affects private employees with 100 or more employees, federal government employees and contractors, and employees of health care entities. It also includes plans to increase COVID-19 testing. This Benefit Minute focuses […]
This issue of the Benefit Minute provides an update on the compliance deadlines for health plan cost transparency requirements under both the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) and the cost transparency regulations, as well as a summary of regulations issued for the balance billing provisions of the No Surprises Act. Compliance Deadlines – Cost Transparency On […]
The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) amended the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) to provide important new protections for participants. The CAA requires a documented comparative analysis of nonquantitative treatment limitations (NQTLs) between medical/surgical benefits and mental health/substance use disorder (MH/SUD) benefits to demonstrate that such treatment limitations are applied comparably […]
On June 17, 2021 the Supreme Court issued their long awaited decision in the case of California v Texas. The case was initially filed in early 2018 based on the pending elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate penalty. Three years later, in a 7-2 decision, the Court declined to consider the merits […]
HSA Limits for 2022 IRS Revenue Procedure 2021-25 updated the limits for qualified high deductible health plans (QHDHPs) for plan years beginning in 2022 as well as the 2022 calendar year health savings account (HSA) contribution limits, as set forth below:
On November 30, 2020, preliminary approval was granted for a settlement agreement to resolve antitrust claims against Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and member plans, including CareFirst. The class action lawsuit was based on allegations that member plans conspired together to divide the country into service areas and then worked to limit competition among the […]
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law. The $1.9 trillion stimulus law includes several welfare and fringe benefit plan provisions. The information outlined below is subject to clarification as the government agencies issue guidance to implement ARPA.
Price transparency in health care has been a topic of interest for several years. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (the CAA) continued this trend by adding numerous provisions that impact cost transparency for all group health plans. Some of these provisions are found in the No Surprises Act while others are found in a separate title […]
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 includes the No Surprises Act (the Act), which is intended to protect patients from the financial impact of unexpected balance billing in cases where they have little or no control over who provides their care. Instead, the Act shifts responsibility for these expenses to providers and payers (insurers and self-insured health […]