EMPLOYEE BENEFITS BLOG

Trending in Telehealth: March 2025

by Amanda Enyeart and Lauren Ellison | Apr 22, 2025 | Digital Health, Health and Welfare Plans

In recent telehealth news, the governor of Mississippi has signed SB 2415 into law, which mandates that health insurance plans cover telemedicine services to the same extent as in-person consultations. The bill also requires that all health insurance and employee benefit plans in Mississippi reimburse out-of-network providers for telemedicine services under the same reimbursement policies applicable to other out-of-network providers.

Read more about other telemedicine-related legislative and regulatory developments in our monthly Trending in Telehealth report.

Senate Committee Advances Bills to Tackle High Drug Prices, Enhance Market Competition

by Christopher M. Bruno | Apr 18, 2025 | Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans

The US Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced six bills aimed at reducing pharmaceutical prices and improving market competitiveness. These bills address various issues, including limiting the number of patents a biologics license holder can assert in litigation, clarifying the boundaries of permissible settlements in “pay for delay” agreements, and preventing “product hopping” by branded drug manufacturers. Additionally, the bills seek to curb abuses of the US Food and Drug Administration’s citizen petition process, improve interagency coordination on patent information, and mandate the Federal Trade Commission publish a report analyzing pharmaceutical benefit manager pricing practices and the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Governing Health Podcast | 2025 Executive Compensation Committee: Key Priorities and Strategic Insights

by Michael W. Peregrine and Jeffrey Holdvogt | Apr 15, 2025 | Executive Compensation

This special quarterly series of the Governing Health podcast with SullivanCotter highlights developments in and offers support to the board’s executive compensation committee as it navigates a range of complex operational, technical, and strategic challenges.

In this episode, Michael Peregrine, Tim Cotter, Bruce Greenblatt, Kathy Hastings, and Jeff Holdvogt offer recommendations for the committee to focus on in 2025, including:

Establishing appropriate incentive goals in an evolving health system
Prioritizing executive succession planning/leadership development
Keeping appraised of regulatory and market trends
Ensuring flexibility and defensibility in committee approval processes
Aligning key governance documents to fulfill committee fiduciary duties
Evaluating committee reporting and coordination with other board committees
Overseeing executive compensation in for-profit and not-for-profit ventures subsidiaries
Considering board compensation trends in not-for-profit health systems
Determining the need to evolve committee composition
Addressing executive compensation scrutiny

Listen on Spotify.

The Employee Retention Credit: How to Litigate and Resolve Claims

by Shawn O’Brien, Samuel Hamer and Michael Scarduzio | Apr 10, 2025 | Employee Benefits, Employment

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC), introduced under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in March 2020, was designed to help employers retain employees during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering a refundable tax credit against certain employment taxes. However, the processing and payment of ERC claims have faced significant delays, with many claims remaining unprocessed or disallowed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

In this Bloomberg Tax article, Shawn O’Brien, Samuel Hamer, and Michael Scarduzio summarize each ERC stage and outline a taxpayer’s path to payment by stage.

Access the article.

Navigating the Shifting Fiduciary Landscape

by Todd Solomon | Apr 8, 2025 | Employee Benefits, Retirement Plans

Todd Solomon recently appeared on the 401(k) Roundtable™ podcast. Hosted by Rick Unser of Creative Planning Retirement Services, the podcast is designed to help plan sponsors, fiduciaries, and members of retirement plan committees stay up to date on recent developments in the benefits industry.

During the episode, Todd explored the changing fiduciary landscape, trends in Employee Retirement Income Security Act litigation, the influence of the Trump administration on the US Department of Labor, and the evolving expectations surrounding fiduciary duties. He delved into the balance between the duty of loyalty and prudence, the significance of participant demographics in making plan decisions, and the difficulties plan sponsors face when weighing cost against value, particularly when choosing investments like target-date funds. Todd and Rick also stressed the importance of thorough documentation, active committee involvement, and creative approaches to improving participant outcomes in today’s intricate regulatory climate.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify