Health and Welfare Plans

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Join Lydia Parker and Laura Ferguson, partners in Troutman Pepper Locke’s Employee Benefits + Executive Compensation Practice, as they discuss the top five health and welfare updates from 2025 to prepare you for 2026, from significant legislative changes to emerging litigation trends that are reshaping the landscape for plan sponsors.

In a blog post dated May 10, 2024, we discussed the Form 5330, an excise tax return used by certain employers and individuals to pay penalty taxes with respect to employee benefit plans, must be filed electronically for taxable years ending on or after December 31, 2023 if the filer is required to file at least 10 returns of any type. As described further in that blog post, this electronic filing requirement had the potential to create issues for sponsors of qualified retirement plans because there was not an Authorized e-file Provider (“AEP”) with the capability of electronically filing Forms 5330. Without relief from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), employers would not have the option of filing the Forms 5330 by paper even with the lack of AEPs.…

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued a final rule on April 26, 2024 (the “Final Rule”) under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) after reviewing more than 85,000 comments from the public following the Proposed Rule.…

The Internal Revenue Service announced the 2024 cost-of-living adjustments to the dollar ‎limitations for qualified retirement plans and other benefits, and the Social Security ‎Administration announced its own cost-of-living adjustments for 2024. Most of the dollar ‎limits, including the elective deferral contribution limit for 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans, the ‎annual compensation limit under 401(a)(17) and the maximum annual contribution limit under ‎Code Section 415(c) will increase from 2023 limits. The dollar limit for catch-up contributions ‎‎(if age 50 or older) remains the same as the 2023 limit.‎…

Beginning January 15, 2022, and continuing throughout the duration of the public health emergency, group health plans and insurers are required to cover over-the-counter (OTC) at-home COVID-19 ‎tests (OTC Tests), including tests not ordered by a ‎health care provider, without participant cost-sharing, preauthorization, or medical management, according to Frequently Asked…

In our September 2, 2021 QuickStudy, we outlined the various laws governing wellness plans and described how group health plans might structure a premium surcharge for employees who have not received the COVID-19 vaccine to fit within such existing rules. This week, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,…

The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) recently issued guidance on best practices for maintaining cybersecurity directed to plan sponsors, fiduciaries, record-keepers and participants of employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”).  While some prior cybersecurity guidance has been issued for certain…