On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (CAA 2023) into law. The $1.7 trillion-dollar annual federal spending bill includes several bipartisan provisions that affect group health plans and adopts important retirement plan proposals known as SECURE 2.0.

Congress recently passed the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), which continues protections extended to same-sex and interracial marriages and repeals a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA contained a provision that stated that it did not require states to recognize same-sex marriage if that marriage was entered into in another state or treated as valid under other states’ laws. The RMA repeals that provision and prohibits states from denying the full faith and credit to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other state pertaining to a marriage...

On November 28, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for changes to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records under 42 CFR Part 2 (referred to as “Part 2”). The proposed rules are intended to increase coordination among providers in treatment for substance use challenges and increase patient protections from unauthorized record disclosures. Note that Part 2 only applies to SUD treatment records from certain types of federally assisted programs, known as “Part 2 programs.”

On December 1, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the HHS issued a bulletin to remind HIPAA covered entities and business associates (“regulated entities”) of their obligations when using online tracking technologies. The bulletin emphases that regulated entities must disclose PHI only as expressly permitted or required under the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness month, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a newsletter to educate stakeholders on the importance of cybersecurity awareness.

HHS recently released an updated federal independent dispute resolution (IDR) process guidance document. The agency issued the guidance document for group health plans and insurers who are seeking to resolve a payment claim for items and services covered by the surprise billing protections under the No Surprises Act (NSA) of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA, 2021).

On September 22, 2022, in Howard v. Ivy Creek of Tallapoosa, LLC et al., the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled that a delegation of COBRA notice obligations to a third-party administrator (TPA) did not absolve the employer of COBRA notice liability. The plaintiff, Pamela Howard, sued her former employer Ivy Creek of Tallapoosa (Ivy Creek) and Ivy Creek’s COBRA TPA, UMR Inc., alleging failure to provide a COBRA election notice. Howard brought a second claim against Ivy Creek under ERISA for failure to provide requested plan documents.

On October 18, 2022, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2022-38, providing certain cost-of-living adjustments for a wide variety of tax-related items, including health FSA contribution limits, transportation and parking benefits, qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangements (QSEHRAs), the small business tax credit and other adjustments for tax year 2023. Those changes are outlined below.

The IRS recently released the final Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C and the drafts of general instructions for Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C for the 2022 reporting year.

On October 17, 2022, the IRS released the updated Fringe Benefits Guide (Publication 5137) to assist federal, state, and local government employers in determining the correct tax treatment of employee fringe benefits, including using the appropriate withholding and reporting procedures. This publication covers: