Health & Welfare
PDFOverview
Our benefits team can help you design, implement, and maintain the full spectrum of Health & Welfare benefit plans. We have worked extensively with employers to navigate the complex rules governing insured and self-funded plans – including the alphabet soup of VEBAs, HSAs, HRAs, FSAs, ACA, GINA, COBRA and HIPAA.
For over 80 years, we have counseled clients and helped shape new laws by leveraging our relationships with legislative and regulatory leaders. We lobbied Code section 125 into existence in 1978 on behalf of a client with one of the earliest cafeteria plans. We specialize in developing practical solutions and identifying cutting-edge ways to protect your plans.
We represent employers – not TPAs or insurance carriers. Our clients include public and private companies, tax-exempt entities, and governmental organizations that sponsor benefit plans. Our singular focus on employers enables us to zealously represent your interests without conflict. This is critical when negotiating service agreements with Health & Welfare vendors on behalf of our clients.
Representative Matters:
- Retiree Medical Plan Design: Advising on transition from traditional retiree medical plan to HRA paired with private exchange.
- Outsourcing: Negotiating ACA protections into staffing agreements.
- M&A: Obtaining contractual commitments to reduce potential ACA liability.
- Fiduciary Liability: Advising plan committee to avoid potential fiduciary liability over mistakes made by third-party service providers.
- VEBAs: Counseling on the permissible scope of VEBA benefits, the timing of corporate tax deductions, and the preparation of government filings.
- Cafeteria Plans: Designing the first cafeteria plan, and lobbying Code section 125 into existence in 1978. Advising plan sponsors on cafeteria plan design and compliance in the decades since then.
- Plan Design: Redesigning benefit programs to add consumer-driven health care benefits such as HSAs, HRAs, and high deductible health plans (HDHPs). Implementing “wrap” plan documents to streamline annual reporting.
- Wellness: Modifying wellness arrangements to comply with EEOC and GINA requirements.
- Privacy and Security: Advising clients on electronic record-keeping, data sharing, disclosures, confidentiality, and HIPAA privacy and security.
