Employee Benefits

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The Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal regulators released updates and clarifications related to employee benefits, including updates to model COBRA notices and an extension of certain statutory deadlines intended to minimize the possibility of participants and beneficiaries losing benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article highlights the DOL’s recent changes and updates relating…

Guidance issued by the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA), the federal agency that administers the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), demonstrates that the PPP loans, as originally thought, were too good to be true.

PPP was established by section 1102 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), Public Law…

Much has happened in the three-plus weeks since the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities (CARES) Act was enacted on March 27, 2020.  The $349 billion dollars appropriated to the newly created Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been exhausted.  The Small Business Administration (SBA), the Federal agency administering the PPP, reports they have made over…

What could be in the next stimulus bill in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Congress reportedly is working on a bill (dubbed “Stimulus 3.5”) that includes additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program created by the CARES Act.  Will the new stimulus bill address long-awaited reforms to the multiemployer pension plan system?

The imminent…

The Internal Revenue Service has broadened the filing and payment relief provided under prior guidance. IRS Notice 2020-23 postpones, among other relief, the due date for employee benefit plans required to make the Form 5500 series filings due on or after April 1, 2020, and before July 15, 2020.  Plans with original due dates or…

With the business disruptions and market turbulence being wrought by COVID-19, many employers sponsoring qualified retirement plans are facing key decisions about their 401(k), profit sharing, defined benefit, and cash balance plans.  From considering potential cost-savings measures such as suspending safe harbor contributions to a 401(k) plan and/or discretionary contributions to a profit sharing plan,…

Applicants in the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Business Loan Programs (which include the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)) are generally subject to the affiliation rule in 13 CFR Section 121.301, subject to certain statutory waivers.  These rules provide that in determining a concern’s size, the SBA counts the employees of both the concern whose size is…

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.  The Act largely stabilizes fragile industries, provides loans and tax credits to businesses tied to their retaining their workforces during these uncertain times, and offers additional unemployment relief to employees hurt by COVID-19.  But the CARES Act…

As previously discussed, the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) issued guidance pursuant to Governor Mike DeWine’s emergency declaration and order from March 9, 2020. Under Bulletin 2020-03, the ODI lifted certain restrictions for group health plans, limited premium increases, and expanded the rules for the continuation of coverage. Recently, the ODI issued FAQs to…

As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are observing all sorts of never-before-seen changes in the fully-insured group health plan space.  Many insurers are liberally waiving their normal rules to accommodate the continuation of coverage to employers and employees in their time of need.  Although the accommodations are welcome, employers need to exercise…