Time for a Year-End Checkup: Health Care Reform Action Items for Large Employers in 2010/2011
Mondaq Business Briefing › United States Law Articles in English (2010)
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Time for a Year-End Checkup: Health Care Reform Action Items for Large Employers in 2010/2011
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law two pieces of legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (these will be referred to collectively as "the Act"), which collectively impose significant new compliance obligations on employers maintaining group health plans.1 This Alert focuses on certain provisions of the Act that apply to group health plans maintained by large employers and that require action in 2010 and 2011.
The Act provides that many existing group health plans are "grandfathered," while others are not; grandfathered plans are subject to only a subset of the requirements imposed by the Act while non-grandfathered plans are subject to the full range of requirements, as discussed below. In this Alert, we focus on how a plan may lose or retain grandfathered status and the consequences of each of these alternatives. PROVISIONS OF THE ACT THAT APPLY TO ALL PLANS All group health plans, regardless of grandfathered status, are subject to many provisions of the Act; however, grandfathered plans may be granted additional transition time for compliance with portions of the Act and may avoid some of the more onerous new requirements altogether. The following requirements of the Act apply to all group health plans regardless of their grandfathered status. Summary Plan Descriptions and Summary Material Modifications.2 The Act generally requires a group health plan to provide advance notice of a material plan modification at least 60 days prior to the effective date of the change. This is a change to the prior disclosure requirement under ERISA, which did not require that notice of health plan changes be delivered in advance of such changes.3 The Act provides that this advance disclosure requirement is effective for plan years beginning on or after March 23, 20...See the full content of this document
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