Vigilant Blog

Think the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rules are just an exercise in compliance on paper? Think again.  A medical school researcher learned the hard way that HIPAA’s criminal sanctions are very real. He is one of the first people to be convicted of violating HIPAA’s privacy provisions, after improperly accessing and…

A recent court case shows why it’s so important to promptly send a COBRA notice to a qualified beneficiary after he or she experiences a COBRA qualifying event. (COBRA is the federal law that gives health plan participants the right to continue their health coverage for a limited time on a self-pay basis after they…

The U.S. Supreme Court has concluded hearing arguments about the constitutionality of various parts of the federal health care reform law known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Court’s decision on the fate of the law is expected by the end of June, when the Court’s current session ends. At issue…

The Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Treasury (IRS) and Labor (DOL) have jointly issued new guidance on a variety of topics under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) (77 Fed Reg 8668). Key points include: Automatic enrollment: IRS confirms that it plans to permit employers to use employees’ Form W-2…

Do you have lingering questions about how to report the value of employees’ employer-provided health coverage on their 2012 Forms W-2? The IRS recently released Employers that are federally recognized Indian tribal governments are not subject to the reporting requirement, nor are tribally chartered corporations wholly-owned by a federally recognized Indian tribal government (Q/A-3). Clarifies…

Can an employer reduce or eliminate benefits for a current employee when the employee becomes eligible for Medicare? No, because doing so is probably a violation of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and also a violation of the Medicare rules, according to a recently released informal discussion letter from the federal Equal…

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