Resource Center

Well, it’s finally that time: On New Year’s Day, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (“PPACA’s”) long-awaited (and, for some employers, dreaded) “pay or play” mandate went live.  This mandate – which is officially known as the “employer shared responsibility” mandate – requires employers with 50 or more “full-time” […]

To view this Alert in pdf, click here. On March 25, 2014, in the case of U.S. vs. Quality Stores, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court held that severance payments to employees are “wages” that are subject to FICA withholding (i.e., withholding for Social Security and Medicare taxes). In our experience, it […]

On October 31, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued guidance modifying the so-called “use it or lose it” rule for health flexible spending accounts (“Health FSAs”).  The timing of this new guidance (Notice 2013-71) – on Halloween – was actually fitting, as it is difficult for some to determine […]

As many of you are likely well aware, this summer, the federal government postponed, until 2015, the enforcement of federal health care reform’s so-called “pay or play” mandate, which requires employers with 50 or more full-time employees to offer affordable health insurance to all full-time employees and their dependents.  Failure to […]

Ever since the health care reform law – the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – was passed in 2010, we have been working overtime to meet with clients, publish alerts, and present seminars to help employers get themselves in compliance with this new law.  Although our families are now […]

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), which had limited the federal government’s definition of “spouse” to opposite-sex spouses. This decision has far-reaching implications and affects more than one thousand provisions in federal law. The Family and Medical […]

As many of you have undoubtedly heard, the Obama Administration announced in July that the employer penalties in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) will not be enforced until January 1, 2015. To read this Alert in pdf, click here. This delay was announced in a blog post […]

While we have all been focused on Health Care Reform, the government has also been active on other fronts affecting employer-provided medical benefits. If you are providing group health coverage to your employees – including major medical coverage or even a health flexible spending account – you also need to […]

Health care reform requires employers with self-insured medical plans to pay an annual fee for each individual who is covered under the plan. This fee, which is known as the “PCOR fee,” will be due for the first time for most employers this summer – on July 31, 2013.  The […]

In recent years, those of us who work in the employee benefits area have witnessed a virtual explosion in the number of notices that employers must provide to their employees.  That list was recently expanded again by the Department of Labor (“DOL”) with the addition of a new mandatory notice […]