Aiken & Aiken, LLC – Attorneys at Law

EEOC Opinion Letter – Requiring a HRA in Order to Obtain ERISA Plan Health Coverage Violates the ADA

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued an opinion letter in March which recently became public regarding the use of health risk assessments (HRA) and the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). While opinion letters from the EEOC are not official opinions, this letter does provide guidance for employers to ...

EEOC Opinion Letter – An ERISA Plans Requirement of a HRA to in Order to Obtain Health Coverage Violates the ADA

New I-9 Form Required Effective April 3, 2009

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) amended the regulations governing the use of Form I-9 - Employment Eligibility Verification - at the end of last year. The new regulations had an original compliance date of beginning February 2, 2009. However, USCIS delayed the implementation of the new regulations until ...

Model Notices for New COBRA Subsidy Released

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) contains provisions which update COBRA and mini-COBRA laws. ARRA requires employers to offer a subsidy to offset the cost of COBRA continuation. Under ARRA, employers must notify COBRA qualified beneficiaries of the new subsidy. As required by ARRA, the Department of Labor ...

Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Expansion Affects Both ERISA and Insured Employer-Sponsored Health Plans

On Feb. 4, 2009, President Obama signed into law an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which includes provisions that affects employer-sponsored group health plans. CHIP was formerly known as the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). It is a federal-state program designed to decrease the number of ...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Increases Requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) approved by Congress on February 13, 2009 and signed into law by the President on February, 2009, makes a number of modifications to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Title XIII of ARRA is entitled the Health Information Technology ...

COBRA Premium Subsidy Provisions of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

On February 13, 2009, Congress passed The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "Act"). The Act was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2008. Included in the Act are provisions that make significant changes to COBRA continuation premium payment requirements. These provisions will be effective ...

Employment and ERISA Law Considerations When Reducing or Laying Off Employees

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, for the 12-month period ending June 2007, there were a total of 23,889 business bankruptcy filings. For the same period ending June 2008, business bankruptcy filings had increased by more than 40% (33,822 filed for the 12-month period ending June 2008). ...

Cycle D 2008 Cumulative List of Changes for ERISA Qualified Plans Available

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2008-108, which contains the 2008 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements. According to the IRS, this list is principally to be used by plan sponsors of individually designed plans which are considered Cycle D plans. Generally, a plan is considered a ...

Mergers and Acquisitions – Don’t Ignore ERISA Employee Benefit Plans

Generally, there are two different ways that companies can grow their existing businesses - 1) obtaining new customers (organic growth) or 2) merging with or acquiring another company. Many companies attempt to grow through mergers and acquisitions ("M&A") as it can allow for the rapid growth of a company's client ...