August 30, 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced an update on employee benefit plan compliance for those impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

August 29, 2017, the IRS announced tax relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. The declaration permits the IRS to postpone certain deadlines for taxpayers who reside or have a business in the disaster area.

The recent Mull v. Motion Picture Industry Health Plan case (No. 15-56246 (9th Cir. August 1, 2017) illustrates the importance of complying with ERISA’s Plan Document and Summary Plan Description (SPD) requirements.

As you approach 2018 and may be considering implementing a high deductible health plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA) it is a good time now to review your existing Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) to ensure it remains HSA compatible. If you currently have an HRA and an HSA arrangement you will need to review the details as well to ensure that it remains HSA compatible.

If you are looking at implementing a Health Savings Account during this upcoming open enrollment season, you should carefully review the details of your existing benefit plan(s), in order to identify any issues and make any required modifications in advance when possible to preserve HSA eligibility.

The IRS recently issued draft versions of Forms 1094-B, 1094-C, 1095-B and 1095-C information returns for the 2017 tax year. The Affordable Care Act requires coverage providers to use Forms 1094-B and 1095-B to report health plan enrollment and requires applicable large employers to use Forms 1094-C and 1095-C to report about employer shared responsibility. The Forms also provide relevant information about individual shared responsibility and premium tax credits.

Real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield Inc. is facing a class-action lawsuit from qualified beneficiaries alleging that the COBRA election notices they received were deficient and violated the COBRA regulations. This case provides an important reminder to employers and plan administrators that COBRA election notices must not only be timely sent to qualified beneficiaries, but the content of the notices must also contain all the requirements mandated by the COBRA regulations.