16 Nov 2021
The No Surprises Act: A Reminder That Some Surprises are Not Good Ones
The No Surprises Act, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Pub. L. No. 116-260), contains protections that hold consumers harmless from the costs related to unanticipated (i.e., surprise) out-of-network medical bills. A common occasion that consumers are surprised by unexpected medical bills is with emergency care, but unpleasant surprises can also occur when patients choose in-network hospitals/facilities that unexpectedly provide out-of-network patient care from ancillary providers, like anesthesiologists. Learn how the No Surprises Act is intended to fix that!
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Learn about the central requirement in the No Surprises Act that participants who receive out-of-network care protected by the Act are only required to pay the same level of cost-sharing they would have paid if the provider had been in-network. - CAA Benefits Alert: Unpacking the Benefits Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Surprise Billing
See how the aptly named "No Surprises Act" is the result of a multi-year, bi-partisan effort to end surprise billing for medical plan participants and hold them harmless from balance-billing by out-of-network providers, including federally regulated air ambulances.
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DOL provides further transition relief relating to prohibited transaction exemption 2020-02 (see 85 Fed. Reg. 82,798 (Dec. 18, 2020)), which permits certain arrangements involving investment advice fiduciaries that adhere to impartial conduct standards when providing advice to ERISA retirement plans and participants, including advice on IRA rollovers. DOL Field Assistance Bulletin 2021-02. - Retirement Plans
IRS releases the 2022 cost-of-living adjustments to retirement plan limits and thresholds, which increase Section 401(k) contributions to $20,500 for 2022 (before catch-up contributions) (up by $1,000). I.R.S. Notice 2021-61; Cost of Living Adjustments Chart for Employee Benefit Plans.
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