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Employers continue to face uncertainty as to wellness program incentives subject to the ADA and GINA (i.e., those with medical exams or disability-related inquiries) as the EEOC awaits confirmation of Janet Dhillon as EEOC Chair and considers “a number of policy choices available.” In other words, the EEOC may wait until the Senate confirms outstanding nominations before re-engaging in the rulemaking process, leaving wellness programs open to challenge in 2019 by employees who feel that the incentives (or penalties) are so great that they render the program involuntary.

On April 9, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a one-year extension to the transition policy (originally announced November 14, 2013 and extended several times since) for individual and small group health plans that allows issuers to continue policies that do not meet ACA standards. The transition policy has been extended to policy years beginning on or before October 1, 2019, provided that all policies end by December 31, 2019.

The IRS has announced it is modifying the annual limitation on deductions for contributions to a health savings account (“HSA”) allowed for taxpayers with family coverage under a high deductible health plan (“HDHP”) for the 2018 calendar year. Under Rev. Proc. 2018-27, taxpayers will be allowed to treat $6,900 as the annual limitation, rather than the $6,850 limitation announced in Rev. Proc. 2018-18 earlier this year.

On Feb. 2, 2018, the Federal Reserve published a letter it had sent to the former lead director of Wells Fargo, Stephen Sanger. In the letter, the Fed reviewed Mr. Sanger’s performance as lead independent director of the financial institution and deemed it “ineffective." The recent Wells Fargo scandal is a cautionary tale of a corporation’s culture gone bad; the letter is a rare instance of a regulator publicly shaming an independent director.

The current landscape of health care and employee benefits—which has become unrelenting in its complexities, compliance requirements, and rising costs—is requiring all of us to think and act differently. In this inaugural issue of our annual Employee Benefits Looking Ahead Guide, we highlight key trends we’re seeing, provide insight into some exciting developments that are pulling the industry forward, and share advice on how you can start thinking about your 2018 strategy.

This year, we’re celebrating our 100-year anniversary. After 100 years of providing guidance and protection to some of the world’s most innovative companies, we have refreshed our brand identity to not only better reflect our 100-year legacy of guiding and protecting our clients, but also to set a course for how we communicate our mission for the future.

Whether you’re an experienced veteran in the private equity market, or a strategic buyer looking for a deal-facilitation tool, there can be a steep learning curve when navigating the ins and outs of RWI. To that end, I’d like to share with you some key pieces of advice to help make that curve a bit less steep, and maximize the effectiveness of RWI in your deal.

Given that the majority of board members are not very satisfied with their compliance and ethics training, how do we ensure boards get the training they need in a way that’s relevant to them? Few public companies require that their board members attend external training sessions, but many public companies encourage their board members to attend a training session such as Stanford’s Directors’ College or other similar conference every one to two years.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Cyan v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund surely has the plaintiffs’ bar popping champagne. Insurance carriers are likely preparing to raise self-insured retentions (think: deductibles) and premium rates for D&O liability insurance for IPO companies. 

AB 262 was signed into law by Governor Brown in 2017. The law will require, for public works projects entered into on or after July 1, 2019, that the successful bidder submit an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) to the awarding agency/authority. By January 1, 2019, the Department of General Services (DGS) will establish and publish in the State Contract Manual the maximum acceptable global warming potential for each category of eligible materials. Eligible materials include: carbon steel rebar, flat glass, wool board insulation and structural steel.