Alera Group, an independent national insurance brokerage and wealth management firm, today announced its acquisition of Benefit Commerce Group, an award-winning, results-driven employee benefits consulting firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Benefit Commerce Group has had strong growth over the past 10 years as a progressive employee benefits consulting firm. The company is a four-time honoree …

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Alera Group, a leading national insurance firm, today announced its acquisition of Comprehensive Benefit Administrators (CBA), effective August 1, 2019. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. CBA, located in Norwell, Massachusetts, creates benefits programs that are focused on exceeding client expectations while minimizing costs. Their expertise in brokerage services, claims administration and enrollment allows …

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released Rev. Proc. 2019-29, which contains the inflation adjusted amounts for 2020 used to determine whether employer-sponsored coverage is “affordable” for purposes of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility provisions and premium tax credit program. As shown in the table below, for plan years beginning in 2020, …

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IRS Expands HSA Preventive Care Safe Harbor to Include Chronic Conditions On July 17, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2019-45, which expands the definition of preventive care benefits that can be provided by a high deductible health plan (HDHP) to include certain chronic conditions.  The guidance in the Notice may be relied …

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Alera Group, a leading national insurance firm, today announced  its acquisition of Landmark Benefits, Inc. (Landmark), effective July 1, 2019. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Landmark, located in Windham, New Hampshire, is an employee benefits broker providing comprehensive insurance benefits, human resource consulting, compliance, and wellness to clients throughout the United States. Landmark’s …

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Deerfield, IL — Alera Group, a leading national insurance firm, today announced its acquisition of Austin & Co., Inc. (Austin & Co.), effective July 1, 2019. The firm expands Alera Group’s employee benefits and property & casualty expertise. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Austin & Co., located in Albany, New York, has served clients …

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President Trump Issues Executive Order Encouraging Transparency in Pricing and Expanding Consumer-Directed Arrangements On June 24, 2019, President Trump issued an Executive Order intending to develop price and quality transparency initiatives to ensure that healthcare patients can make well-informed decisions about their care. This is part of the consumer-driven healthcare initiative, which has been a …

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Final Rule Released on Individual Coverage and Excepted Benefit HRAs On June 13, 2019 the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Treasury Department (the “Departments”) released the final rule concerning health reimbursement arrangements (HRA) for individual market coverage and excepted health benefits. The rule, based on an executive order …

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HHS Proposes Revisions to ACA Section 1557 Regulations At the end of May, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a proposed rule to revise regulations previously released under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The HHS goal with the proposed rule is to remove what the department views as redundancies …

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This alert is of interest to all employers that sponsor group health plans.  Note that employers with “grandfathered” or “grandmothered” plans are not subject to the ACA out-of-pocket limits, although the HSA/HDHP rules still apply if the plan is an HSA-qualified HDHP. In Rev. Proc. 2019-25, the IRS released the inflation adjusted amounts for 2020 …

Read moreIRS Releases 2020 HSA Contribution Limits and HDHP Deductible and Out-of-Pocket Limits