On January 7, 2021, CMS issued a toolkit designed to assist insurers and Medicare Advantage plans in covering the COVID-19 vaccine. The document focuses on issues that issuers must consider, and includes:

On June 30, 2021, the IRS issued Notice 2021-42, which extends certain tax relief originally provided in Notice 2020-46. Under Notice 2020-46, which was issued on June 11, 2020, cash payments that employers make to qualified tax-exempt organizations for the relief of victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for vacation, sick or personal leave that their employees elect to forgo will not be treated as income to the employees.

On June 8, 2021, the IRS Office of Chief Counsel issued a memorandum to the Counsel of IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division. The memo answers the question as to whether IRS Letter 226-J, when sent to an applicable large church employer, is a routine request from the IRS or a church tax inquiry under Section 7611.

On July 1, 2021, HHS, the DOL and the Treasury Department released interim final rules implementing the No Surprise Billing Act (the Act) that was part of the CAA passed by Congress in late 2020. An interim final rule is a rule that an agency promulgates when it finds that it has good cause to issue a final rule without first issuing a proposed rule. Although interim rules are often effective as of the date of their publication, they will have a comment period after which the interim rule may be amended in response to public comments.

On May 27, 2021, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) publicly released a report on the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA’s) ERISA enforcement activities. The report followed a fifteen-month study focused upon the EBSA’s management of and efforts to improve the enforcement process, as well as the immediate and long-term challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first GAO report issued on EBSA enforcement since 2007.

On June 14, 2021, the DOL published Information Letter 06-14-2021, confirming that a copy of an audio recording and transcript of a telephone conversation between a participant and the plan’s insurer had to be provided to the participant.

On June 11, 2021, the IRS issued guidance related to the calculation of the employer tax credit for emergency paid sick leave (EPSL) and expanded FMLA (EFMLA). The guidance comes in the form of 123 frequently asked questions.

On June 11, 2021, the IRS released final regulations on the mandatory 60-day postponement of certain tax-related deadlines due to federally declared disasters, which includes a definition of “federally declared disaster.”

On May 28, 2021, the EEOC updated its "What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws" webpage. The revised guidance confirms that an employer may require all employees returning to a physical worksite to be vaccinated for COVID-19. However, the employer must provide reasonable accommodation for employees who do not get vaccinated for COVID-19 because of a disability or a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance.

On April 9, 2021, the IRS released a private letter ruling regarding the deductibility of medical costs and fees arising from in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures and gestational surrogacy. The agency issued the letter in response to a request by a married male same sex couple (the “taxpayers”) planning to have a child using the sperm of one spouse and the egg of the other spouse’s sister, with an unrelated surrogate carrying the child to term.