COVID-19 WEBINARS

January 21 2021

TRUCKER HUSS WEBINAR: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 — Understanding the Health and Welfare and Retirement Provisions

Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 — Understanding the Health and Welfare and Retirement Provisions 2021.1.21 DATE: Thursday, January 21, 2021 TIME: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM PST PRESENTERS: Mary Powell, Kevin Nolt, Katuri Kaye and Lindsay Docto In a year-end piece of legislation that is 5,593 pages in length, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “CAA”)

May 28 2020

TRUCKER HUSS WEBINAR: COVID-19 Guidance for Health Plans: Putting It All Together!

DATE: Thursday, May 28th TIME: 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM PDT PRESENTERS: Mary Powell, Sarah Kanter, and Lindsay Docto This webinar will provide an overview—plus some insights—on the new legislation, regulations and other guidance recently issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new guidance has left many plan sponsors feeling overwhelmed and confused about

April 9 2020

TRUCKER HUSS WEBINAR: ERISA and Tax Considerations for Severance Benefit Plans

DATE: Thursday, April 9th TIME: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT PRESENTERS: Marc Fosse and Mary Powell As the shelter-in-place timelines are extended, many employers are faced with decisions about whether to provide severance pay or benefits in connection with a reduction-in-force or layoff. Designing and implementing a severance benefit plan, or drafting a severance

March 26 2020

TRUCKER HUSS WEBINAR: COVID-19 Impact on Employee Benefit Plans

DATE: Thursday, March 26th TIME: 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PDT PRESENTERS: Mary Powell, Kevin Nolt, Robert Gower and Lindsay Docto Due to the urgent crisis the United States is facing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the President has declared a national emergency, as well as declaring major disasters in California, Washington and New York.

COVID-19 PUBLICATIONS

Tri-Agencies Provide Additional At-Home COVID-19 Testing Coverage Guidance

RYAN KADEVARI and JENNIFER TRUONG, February 22, 2022  On February 4, 2022, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury (collectively, the Departments) released additional guidance concerning group health plan and health insurance coverage of over-the-counter COVID-19 diagnostic tests (“OTC Tests”). The guidance complements an initial set of FAQs previously issued on January 10, 2022, which required group health plans and health insurance issuers to cover OTC Tests purchased on or after January 15, 2022. (The first round of guidance was addressed in a Trucker Huss Special Alert issued last month, “Health Plans and Insurers Required to Cover At-Home COVID Tests.”) In this new round of guidance, the Departments clarify (and even modify) certain provisions of the safe harbors that allow qualifying health plans and issuers to limit certain OTC Test reimbursement amounts and quantities. The February 4, 2022 guidance also addresses limitations which are permitted to prevent fraud, as well as OTC Test reimbursements under health flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health reimbursement arrange­ments (HRAs), and health savings accounts (HSAs).  Background Under Section 6001 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), group health plans and issuers must provide COVID-19 diagnostic testing without any cost-sharing, prior authorization, or other medical management requirements. On January 10, 2022, the Departments issued FAQs confirming that the FFCRA requirement to cover diagnostic COVID tests also applies to OTC Tests that are available without a prescription or individualized clinical assessment from a health care provider. Although the first set

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Health Plans and Insurers Required to Cover At-Home COVID Tests

MARY E. POWELL, January 11, 2022  On January 10, 2022, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury (the “Departments”) issued FAQs Part 51 (FAQs) regarding the requirement for health plans to cover over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 diagnostic testing (“OTC COVID Tests”). This will be required effective with OTC COVID Tests purchased on and after January 15, 2022 and will last through the COVID-19 public emergency period. The OTC COVID Test coverage rules do not apply to excepted benefits (such as limited-scope dental plans or certain employee assistance plans) and group health plans that do not cover at least two employees who are current employees (such as retiree-only plans). Some key provisions of the FAQs are as follows: No Cost-Sharing or Clinical Assessment.  OTC COVID Tests must be provided by the health plan without any cost-sharing, prior authorization or medical management requirements. Coverage of OTC COVID Tests is required, with or without an order or individualized clinical assessment by an attending health care provider. This requirement only applies to diagnostic OTC COVID Tests that are primarily for individualized diagnosis or treatment of COVID-19. Coverage of OTC COVID Tests for employment purposes is not required. This is a change from the prior guidance which only required coverage of COVID-19 diagnostic tests when ordered by an attending health care provider who had determined that the test was medically appropriate. While that standard still applies for other types of COVID-19 tests, it does not apply to OTC COVID Tests. Coverage Requirement. 

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Delay of Some Key Provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act and the Affordable Care Act’s Transparency Requirements

MARY E. POWELL, August 31, 2021  On August 20, 2021, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury (collectively, the Departments), issued Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding the implementation of certain provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Fortunately, several of the most complicated and onerous provisions of the CAA have a delayed effective date. That is welcome news to plan sponsors, given the myriad new requirements for group health plans imposed by the CAA — and the relatively short time between its passage on December 27, 2020, and the effective date of most of its provisions (i.e., plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2022). For certain other provisions of the CAA, plan sponsors will be held to a good faith, reasonable interpretation of the law. Those distinctions, as well as the CAA and ACA transparency provisions impacted by these FAQs, are described below in more detail. (For a detailed overview of the group health plan provisions of the CAA and regulations implementing the transparency requirements of the ACA, see this Special Alert.) Transparency in Coverage — Three Machine-Readable Files (ACA Regulations) On November 12, 2020, the Departments issued final rules requiring non-grandfathered group health plans to disclose on a public website — in three separate machine-readable files — information regarding in-network provider rates for covered items and services, out-of-network allowed amounts and billed charges for covered items and services, and nego­tiated rates and historical net

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IRS Guidance on COBRA Premium Assistance — What We Know Now

SARAH KANTER, July, 2021  After the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) and release of DOL model notices and FAQs on April 7, 2021, employers and other plan sponsors were still left with many open questions regarding the implementation of COBRA premium assistance. The IRS provided clarity to many of these issues with Notice 2021-31 released on May 18, 2021. This article provides a summary of Notice 2021-31. For an in-depth overview of the ARP’s provisions regarding COBRA premium assistance, see Elizabeth Loh’s article from March 18, 2021. The ARP provides for COBRA premium assistance for certain COBRA Qualified Beneficiaries (“Assistance Eligible Individuals”) during the period from April 1 through September 30, 2021. To qualify for COBRA premium assistance under the ARP, an individual must: be a Qualified Beneficiary under normal COBRA rules (i.e., the covered employee, the covered employee’s spouse, and the covered employee’s dependent children who were covered under the group health plan immediately before the qualifying event); have lost coverage as a result of a qualifying event that was:  (A) the reduction of hours of a covered employee’s employment or (B) the involuntary termination of a covered employee’s employment (other than by reason of an employee’s gross misconduct); be eligible for COBRA coverage for some or all of the period beginning on April 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021. IRS guidance regarding each of these requirements is explained in greater detail below. What Coverage Is Eligible for Premium Assistance? Notice 2021-31

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IRS Q&As Clarify COVID-19 Partial Plan Termination Relief

BRYAN J. CARD, June, 2021  On April 27, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published guidance in the form of five questions and answers (the “Q&A Guidance”) on the partial plan termination relief provided under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”), which was signed into law on December 27, 2020. This partial plan termination relief provided under the Act was enacted to help alleviate economic hardships faced by plan sponsors who were forced to temporarily reduce their workforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article begins by discussing the partial plan termination rules and the partial plan termination relief provided under the Act. The article then discusses the IRS’s Q&A Guidance and the questions that remain unanswered following the issuance of the Q&A Guidance. Partial Plan Terminations When a qualified defined contribution or defined benefit plan experiences a partial plan termination, the affected employees are 100% vested in their plan benefits. A partial termination occurs when there is a significant reduction in the number of covered participants either due to their involuntary termination of employment (e.g., lay-off) or a plan amendment. Whether a partial termination has occurred is a facts-and-circumstances determination but as a general rule, the IRS has provided that if 20% or more of all active plan participants, including both vested and non-vested participants, cease to be covered by the plan in a plan year (the applicable measuring period may be longer if the employer-initiated events are part of a series of related events,

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American Rescue Plan Act: COBRA Subsidy Relief and Dependent Care FSA Limit Increase

ELIZABETH LOH, March 18, 2021   On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act (the “Act”). This $1.9 trillion legislative package provides significant pandemic relief. This article focuses on the COBRA continuation coverage subsidy relief, as well as increased Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (“Dependent Care FSA”) relief provided under the Act. COBRA Subsidy Relief Available Under existing COBRA rules, an individual who loses employer group health plan coverage as a result of a COBRA qualifying event is eligible to elect continued group health plan coverage. However, the COBRA qualified beneficiary is typically obligated to pay up to 102% of the COBRA cost of coverage. To provide relief to terminating employees and their eligible dependents, the Act provides for temporary COBRA subsidies. COBRA Subsidy Is Temporary The Act provides that if an “Assistance Eligible Individual” incurs any premiums between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021, such premiums must be 100% subsidized (i.e., the Assistance Eligible Individual does not have to pay any amount to receive COBRA coverage). Note: Under existing COBRA rules, the group health plan may require a COBRA qualified beneficiary to pay an amount up to 102% of the applicable premium for group health plan coverage. In calculating premiums for COBRA coverage, the group health plan can include the costs paid by both the employee and the employer, plus an additional 2% for administrative costs. The COBRA subsidy provided for under the Act will cover both employer and employee costs,

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