On June 11, 2024, the DOL announced a recent settlement with Unum Life Insurance Company of America (Unum) following an investigation into the carrier’s group supplemental life insurance claims practices. The DOL investigation found that Unum routinely accepted premiums (via employer payroll deductions) for many years without verifying if participants satisfied an evidence of insurability (EOI) standard. Then, when a plan participant died,

On June 6, 2024, in N.C., individually and on behalf of minor A.C., v. Premera Blue Cross (Premera), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (Ninth Circuit) affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff-appellee N.C. regarding their ERISA claim for recovery of residential treatment benefits.

On April 29, 2024, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) published a Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) on the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and other federal labor standards regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated systems in the workplace. The FAB also provides detailed guidance on the challenges that may arise with the use of AI and compliance with the FMLA. or purposes of FMLA compliance, AI...

On May 21, 2024, in Scanlan, et al. v. American Airlines, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that employees are entitled to paid military service leave where their employer provides paid leave for bereavement and jury duty leave if the leaves are comparable in duration, frequency, purpose, and control. The plaintiffs in this case, a group of American Airlines pilots, sued their employer under the Uniformed Services...

The DOL, HHS, and IRS have jointly updated the Submission Instructions and User Manual for the Gag Clause Prohibition Compliance Attestation (GCPCA), dated May 2024. Group health plans and health insurance issuers (insurers) offering group or individual health insurance coverage must annually submit a GCPCA to the DOL, HHS, and IRS (collectively, the agencies). The statutory provisions added by the CAA 2021 generally prohibit...

On May 30, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its amended final rule covering health breach notifications (HBNs) in the Federal Register. The HBN rule requires vendors of personal health records (PHRs) and related entities that are not covered by HIPAA to notify individuals, the FTC, and, in some cases, the media of a breach of unsecured personally identifiable health data. 

On May 9, 2024, the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2024-25, which provides the 2025 inflation-adjusted limits for HSAs and HSA-qualifying HDHPs.

On April 29, 2024, the Fourth Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed district court findings that coverage exclusions of gender-affirming care for the treatment of gender dysphoria violated both the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Section 1557 of the ACA, which in part prohibits discrimination in coverage based on sex. The Fourth Circuit’s decision regarded two cases. In the first, the trial court found in favor of transgender North Carolina and West Virginia state employees who sued those states’ health plans for their exclusions of “treatment or studies leading to or in connection.. 

On May 6, 2024, the Congressional Research Service published a report concerning the scope of ACA Section 1557 (the Section). Section 1557 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, and sex in federally funded healthcare programs or activities. It is the source of intense regulatory and legal scrutiny. The report focuses on the federal government’s and the courts’ attempts to define the entities to which the Section applies and provides recommendations to Congress regarding the Section’s implementation.

On May 2, 2024, the IRS published the revised 2024 IRS Publication 15-B, the Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits, to correct the figures for HSA eligibility and employer contribution limits. The 2024 IRS Publication 15-B was originally published in January 2024 and was covered in the January 17, 2024, edition of Compliance Corner. This publication provides an overview of the taxation of fringe benefits and applicable exclusion, valuation, withholding, and reporting rules.