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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that amounts paid by individuals for certain personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, sanitizing wipes, and hand sanitizer—for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of COVID-19 (the disease that results from SARS-CoV-2)—are treated as expenses incurred for medical care under Internal Revenue Code Section 213(d) (Announcement 2021-7 (Mar. 26, 2021)). Accordingly, these amounts may be deductible under the Code or reimbursed under health flexible spending arrangements (health FSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), or Archer medical savings accounts (Archer MSAs).

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The IRS has issued COVID-19-related guidance that extends certain compliance deadlines relating to health savings accounts (HSAs) (Notice 2021-21 (Mar. 29, 2021)). The guidance also extends the deadline by which individuals must file their 2020 federal income tax returns.

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Effective July 1, 2020, the Seattle ordinance at issue in this case requires large hotel employers (and related businesses) to make employee health care expenditures on behalf of covered employees. Employers may satisfy the requirement by making monthly expenditures in specified dollar amounts that vary depending on whether a covered employee has a spouse/domestic partner and dependents.

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In a coverage dispute over autism treatment, the District Court for the Northern District of California held that a health plan's autism-related exclusion for Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy violated the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). The court also concluded that the plan's third-party administrator (TPA) was an ERISA fiduciary regarding its denial of benefits under the plan's exclusion.

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Many employers have established wellness programs to promote employee health and, in doing so, help counter the ever increasing costs associated with employer-sponsored health benefit plans. Often employers want to establish programs that provide employees with incentives to achieve certain health outcomes, such as smoking cessation or weight loss. Employers must exercise caution in creating such health-contingent wellness programs, which necessarily require employees to disclose health information, because the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”) prohibit medical inquiries unless there is a demonstrated business necessity or responding to the health inquiry is voluntary.

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With remote work here to stay, employers are weighing what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building an engaging culture that supports employees at all levels.

While the majority of employees have embraced remote work just 15% feel engaged with their work, according to Gallup. Disengaged employees are less productive and more likely to search for work elsewhere, which costs employers over $1 billion a year in rehiring process, according to software provider Zenefits.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — On Friday, Governor Kevin Stitt announced managed care organizations to help with the expansion of the Oklahoma Medicaid program although legislators on both sides of the aisle have been outspoken against entering managed care contracts.

 “A healthy Oklahoma is a prosperous Oklahoma. As leaders we have a moral obligation to make life better for the people that we serve,” Stitt said.

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