A recent excellent New York Times article explains how a change in law first effective in 2022 has quickly come to be used by out-of-network providers to obtain significant overpayments for routine medical procedures. Not stated in the article is the impact on self-funded group health plans and the sponsors of those plans. Specifically, the
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury (the “Departments”) recently released their 2025 Report to Congress on enforcement activity under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (“MHPAEA”).
MHPAEA is a federal law that generally requires group health plans and health insurance issuers that provide mental health or substance
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) does not frequently issue Field Assistance Bulletins (FABs); in fact, in the last decade, there have only been ten FABs issued. Furthermore, EBSA rarely uses them to articulate an overarching enforcement philosophy. The usual offering is guidance on notice requirements and announcements of EBSA’s temporary enforcement
On March 30, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued its long-anticipated proposed regulation, “Fiduciary Duties in Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives”, that is intended to address the dual aims of (i) expanding 401(k) designated investment alternatives (“DIAs”) to funds that include alternative assets and (ii) limiting litigation risk. The impetus for the proposed regulation
Few areas of retirement plan regulation have experienced as much turbulence – or generated as much practical uncertainty for plan sponsors, recordkeepers, and third-party administrators – as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (“ERISA”) definition of an “investment advice fiduciary.” After more than a decade of competing regulatory proposals, litigation victories and defeats, and
As described in earlier Thompson Hine blog posts (here and here), Trump accounts provide a new private savings vehicle for eligible minor children. The Treasury Department and IRS recently released additional guidance related to these accounts within two coordinated notices of proposed rulemaking that address the critical threshold questions of (1) how Trump
Thanks to SECURE 2.0, paper is back, requiring increased use of the traditional mail system through the United States Postal Service (“USPS”). A recently proposed rule (“Proposed Rule”) from the Department of Labor (“DOL”) “narrowly implements” SECURE 2.0’s mandate requiring retirement plans to furnish paper pension benefit statements, effective
February 2026
On November 26, 2025, the District of New Jersey issued its latest ruling in Lewandowski v. Johnson & Johnson, granting Johnson & Johnson’s motion to dismiss the fiduciary breach claims for lack of Article III standing.
As a refresher, a class action lawsuit was filed by Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”) employees, against
The Department of Labor (DOL or the Department) recently announced its 2026 national enforcement projects, signaling changes in the administration’s enforcement priorities for this fiscal year. The Department identified priorities both with respect to health and welfare plans and retirement plans, as well as cybersecurity, although the Department has clearly shifted significant resources to health
Since the first quarter of 2024, 10 plan sponsors (along with named and independent fiduciaries) have been sued in 13 putative class actions challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs), which are transfers to insurance companies of a portion or all of a defined benefit pension plan’s liabilities through the purchase of a group annuity contract. Generally