The annual adjustments relate to a wide range of compliance issues and are based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from October of the preceding year.

On January 6, 2025, HHS published proposed regulations relating to HIPAA’s Security Rule requiring numerous additional policies and procedures, imposing substantial ongoing maintenance efforts, and addressing common compliance shortfalls identified by HHS in several recent enforcement investigations. According to the proposed rules, HHS wanted to address the significant technology changes and developments since...

On December 4, 2024, a federal court in the Eastern District of Texas issued a ruling vacating the final rules related to the notice requirement on hospital and fixed indemnity insurance that would have been required for group coverage plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.

On December 23, 2024, President Biden signed the Paperwork Burden Reduction Act (PBRA) and Employer Reporting Improvement Act (ERIA) into law. As previously reported in our December 17, 2024, announcement, this legislation makes certain modifications to the ACA’s employer mandate reporting requirements that aim to simplify Forms 1095-B and 1095-C reporting for employers and health insurance providers, as highlighted below.

On December 23, 2024, the DOL, HHS, and IRS (the departments) withdrew proposed rules that would have provided an additional method for individuals to obtain no-cost contraceptive services if their health plan or insurer did not provide such services due to a religious exemption.

On December 2, 2024, the IRS released Notice 2024-83, which announces that the adjusted applicable dollar amount for PCOR fees for plan and policy years ending on or after October 1, 2024, and before October 1, 2025, is $3.47. This is a $0.25 increase from the $3.22 amount in effect for plan and policy years ending on or after October 1, 2023, and before October 1, 2024.

The report is an analysis of data for the years 2020 and 2021 regarding premiums, enrollments, nondrug medical spending, spending on prescription drugs, and prescription drug rebates provided by group health plans and health insurance issuers through the Prescription Drug Data Collection program (RxDC).

In a report issued last month, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) advocated for increased HIPAA audits and enforcement efforts from the Office for Civil Rights. Of particular concern for OIG was the recent increase in cyberattacks and the vulnerability of electronic information protected by HIPAA.

On November 15, 2024, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report on HSA Qualified Medical Expenses. The report describes HSA-qualified medical expenses and legislative approaches to amend HSA-qualified medical expenses.

On October 25, 2024, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published its October 2024 OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter. The newsletter focuses on “social engineering,” which the OCR defines as “an attempt to trick someone into revealing information (e.g., a password) that can be used to attack systems or networks or taking an action (e.g., clicking a link, opening a document, etc.).”