McDermott Will & Emery
Subscribe to McDermott Will & Emery's PostsNew October 15 Deadline for Medicare Part D Creditable / Non-Creditable Coverage Notices
By McDermott Will & Emery on Oct 4, 2011
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Susan M. Nash and Elizabeth A. Savard Group health plans that offer prescription drug coverage are required to issue a notice of creditable or non-creditable coverage to Medicare-eligible participants and beneficiaries each year prior to the annual Medicare Part D open enrollment period. In the past, the Medicare Part D open enrollment period ran...
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Administrative Law Judge Finds Employer Unlawfully Discharged Employees Based on Facebook Posts
By McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 22, 2011
Posted In Employment, Labor
by Stephen D. Erf, Heather Egan Sussman and Sabrina E. Dunlap In a first of its kind ruling, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found that an employer unlawfully terminated five employees because they posted comments on Facebook related to working conditions. This is a landmark decision because, up to this point, employers...
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IRS Guidance Provides Employer-Provided Cell Phones May Generally be Treated as Nontaxable Fringe
By McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 16, 2011
Posted In Employment, Executive Compensation
by Ralph DeJong, Ira Mirsky and Michael Fine On Wednesday, September 14, 2011, the IRS issued Notice 2011-72, which provides long-awaited relief concerning the tax treatment for the employee use of employer-provided cellular telephones or other similar telecommunications equipment (e.g., PDAs and Blackberries): The IRS will generally treat an employee’s business use of an employer-provided...
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NLRB Releases Poster For Posting By November 14, 2011
By McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 15, 2011
Posted In Employment, Labor
by Heather Egan Sussman, Sabrina E. Dunlap and Stephen D. Erf As an update to our previous blog entry, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has released the private employer notice of rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). As of November 14, 2011, covered employers must post the 11-by-17-inch notice in a conspicuous place, where other...
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Live Audio Conference: Why Is This Guy Still on My Health Plan?
By McDermott Will & Emery on Sep 6, 2011
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
Lorman Education Services Live Audio Conference Why Is This Guy Still on My Health Plan? September 26, 2011 1:00 pm (EST), (12:00 p.m. [CST], 11:00 a.m. [MST], 10:00 a.m. [PDT]) 1 hour 30 minutes Instructor: Amy Gordon, Co-Chair of McDermott Will & Emery’s Health and Welfare Benefits Group Companies have encountered many situations where an employee remains...
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HHS Releases Guidance Exempting Existing HRAs from Applying for Restricted Annual Limit Waivers
By McDermott Will & Emery on Aug 29, 2011
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Amy M. Gordon and Jamie A. Weyeneth Under Health Care Reform, for plan years starting on or after September 23, 2010, health plans may impose only "restricted annual limits" on essential health benefits as defined by Health and Human Services (HHS). All annual limits are prohibited for plan years starting on or after January...
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New Connecticut Law Limits Employer Access to Employee Credit Data
By McDermott Will & Emery on Aug 8, 2011
Posted In Employment, Privacy and Data Security
by Heather Egan Sussman, Stephen D. Erf and Sabrina E. Dunlap Adding to the growing number of states limiting employers’ use of credit reports, including Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, and Maryland), Connecticut recently passed Public Act No. 11-223 restricting employer use of credit reports and credit history for employees or job applicants. The Connecticut law goes into...
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Guidance Regarding Annual Waiver Application Deadline
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 23, 2011
Posted In Health and Welfare Plans
by Susan M. Nash and Maureen O’Brien On June 17, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued additional guidance with respect to the annual waiver limit program. The annual waiver limit program allows issuers or other group health plan sponsors to apply for a waiver from the annual limit requirements if...
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Supreme Court Rules SPD Does Not Trump Plan Document, but Emphasizes Availability of Equitable Remedies Where Employer Misleads
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 21, 2011
Posted In Retirement Plans
by Stephen Pavlick and Nancy S. Gerrie The Supreme Court of the United States in the CIGNA decision confirms, in what may be hailed as a victory for plan sponsors, that information contained in a summary plan description does not itself constitute the “terms” of a benefit plan for purposes of filing claims for benefits. ...
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No Seventh Circuit Rehearing in Kraft ERISA “Excessive Fees” Case
By McDermott Will & Emery on Jun 9, 2011
Posted In Benefit Controversies, Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Fiduciary and Investment Issues, Retirement Plans
by Chris C. Scheithauer and Joseph S. Adams As previously described in this blog earlier this year, a divided Seventh Circuit panel reversed summary judgment in favor of Kraft Foods Global, Inc. in a class action involving allegedly excessive fees in the Kraft 401(k) plan. Shortly thereafter, Kraft petitioned for rehearing of the case by...
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