Congress approved legislation earlier today that will restore unemployment benefits to people who have been out of work for six months or more, after a seven-week interruption that caused 2.5 million people to lose unemployment benefits. There was, however, no measure to extend the subsidy for COBRA benefits.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have modified the definition of an HRA for reporting purposes. CMS has removed the distinction between a free-standing HRA and an embedded HRA meaning all HRAs are reportable if they meet the $1,000.00 value threshold.

The Medicare Secondary Payer Mandatory Reporting User Guide for group health plans has been updated to address the required reporting of "linked" HRA coverage and other changes, such as the obligation of responsible reporting entities to provide information to CMS when group health plans are or have been primary to Medicare.

Click here to view.

The Department of Health & Human Services has proposed modification to the HIPAA Privacy, Security and Enforcement Rules. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is designed to promote the widespread adoption and standardization of health information technology, and requires HHS to modify the HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Enforcement Rules to strengthen the privacy and security protections for health information and to improve the workability and effectiveness of the HIPAA Rules.

• expand individuals’ rights to access their information and to restrict certain types of disclosures of protected health information to health plans.
• require business associates of HIPAA-covered entities to be under most of the same rules as the covered entities;
• set new limitations on the use and disclosure of protected health information for marketing and fundraising; and
• prohibit the sale of protected health information without patient authorization.

In addition, the proposed rule adopts provisions designed to strengthen and expand HIPAA’s enforcement provisions.

Click here to view the proposed rule.

HHS has posted FAQs clarifying many details of the program. Also posted are the application form and instructions. The posted application and instructions do offer some new insights into the program; however, more clarification is needed.

Click here to read the FAQs.
Click here to view the draft application.
Click here to read the instructions for the draft application.

Click here to see the news release describing this new option.
Click here to read the fact sheet on Form 5500 E-Filing Requirement.
Click here to read the FAQs on Electronic Filing for Small Businesses.

The Department of Labor has posted the interim final regulation and additional model notices on preexisting condition exclusions, lifetime and annual limits, rescissions and patient protections under the Affordable Care Act.

Click here to view the Interim Final Regulation.

Click here to view the fact sheet.

Click here to view the Patient Protection Model Notice.

Click here to view the Lifetime Limits Model Notice.

Click here to view the Dependent Model Notice.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has finalized regulations that specifically name domestic partners in the definition of "family member" and "immediate relative" for purposes of sick, funeral and certain other types of leaves for federal employees.

The definitions "family member" and "immediate relative" now include domestic partners as well as certain other individuals including grandparents and grandchildren.

The final regulations (effective July 14, 2010) were proposed in September 2009 in response to an Obama administration directive that benefits for federal employees be expanded to include same-sex domestic partners to the extent consistent with federal law.

Unlike the recently finalized long-term care insurance rules, which are limited to federal employees’ same-sex domestic partners, leave benefits may be used in connection with both same- and opposite-sex domestic partners. OPM emphasizes that the final leave regulations do not apply to the FMLA.

Click here to view the regulations.

Additional resources have been posted relating to grandfathered health plans under the Affordable Care Act after the final interim rules regarding these plans were issued Monday. The regulations explain to employers and plan sponsors the changes that can and cannot be made to plans seeking the grandfathered status.

Click here for the fact sheet.

Click here for the FAQs.

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury issued an interim rule that protects the ability of individuals and businesses to keep their current plan while providing important consumer protections that give Americans, rather than insurance companies, control over their own health care.

While the Affordable Care Act requires all health plans to provide important new benefits to consumers, plans that existed on March 23, 2010 are exempt from some new requirements. The “grandfather rule” makes it clear that these plans can continue to contain costs by allowing insurers and employers to make routine adjustments without losing grandfather status. Plans will lose their “grandfather” status if they choose to significantly cut benefits or increase out-of-pocket spending for consumers and consumers in plans that make such changes will gain new consumer protections.

Click here to read more.

As you know, HRAs are required to comply under the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) mandatory reporting requirements. Responsible Reporting Entities (RREs) must provide information to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to identify situations in which group health plans are or have been primary to Medicare.

Click here to view.