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On April 23, 2018, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services released several pieces of guidance on issues arising under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA), including 2017 enforcement actions, guidance on mental health parity implementation, and an action plan for enhanced enforcement in 2018.

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.