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Happy 50th Birthday, ERISA!

  • On September 9, 2024
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) marked its 50th anniversary on September 2, 2024. Over the past five decades, ERISA has served as the primary federal law governing employee benefit programs. Major federal legislation affecting group health insurance plans, including the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA), the Health Insurance […]
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Latest Healthcare Fiduciary Lawsuit Filed Against Wells Fargo

  • On September 9, 2024
Following in the footsteps of the class action suit filed against Johnson & Johnson earlier this year, another group of employees filed a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Wells Fargo. The lawsuit, Navarro v. Wells Fargo & Co., contains many of the same allegations as the Johnson & Johnson case. This is the latest in an emerging […]
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Updated Federal Penalties for Health Plan Violations

  • On September 3, 2024
The federal Department of Health and Human Services released updated penalty amounts for certain health plan violations that may occur on or after January 15, 2025. These penalty increases are separate from any penalty increases the federal Department of Labor may announce later this year for ERISA violations. The new penalty amounts by infraction are […]
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Is Your Clients’ Generosity Hurting Their Benefit Plan?

  • On August 26, 2024
Employer-sponsored group benefit plans are generally designed to cover only employees who actively work a minimum number of hours. When employees take short-term leave for vacations, holidays, or sick days during the normal course of business, their benefits continue uninterrupted. Generosity begins to hurt employer benefit plans when they are improperly administered during leaves of […]
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Don’t Forget Summary Annual Reports

  • On August 19, 2024
If a group health plan covers 100 or more participants on the first day of the plan year, then the plan sponsor (usually the employer) must file an annual report with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service, known as Form 5500. This requirement applies to all group health plans meeting the size threshold, […]
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New Fee Lawsuit Excellent Reminder of Fiduciary Duty

  • On August 6, 2024
Last week, employees of Wells Fargo filed a lawsuit against their group health plan, Navarro et al. v. Wells Fargo Company, charging their employer plan sponsor with not upholding its fiduciary duty to plan participants. Similar to a case filed last February, Lewandowski v. Johnson and Johnson et al., the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit charged that […]
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