Capitol Benefits Group News & Update
February is American Heart Month
February is American Heart Month, a time when all people—especially women—are encouraged to focus on their cardiovascular health. Both the CDC and NIH have some fabulous toolkits and communication pieces employers can utilize to raise awareness and issue reminders about the importance of health screenings and prevention! The available toolkits contain facts and resources that employers can use to raise awareness about the risks of heart disease and the importance of identifying and managing heart-related health conditions.
Our very own Marcie Strouse testified at a House Ways and Means health subcommittee hearing on small employers' health coverage.
Marcie Strouse, a partner at Capitol Benefits Group, testified at a House Ways and Means health subcommittee hearing on the U.S. health care system that government and industry bureaucracies hold all of the cards and keep small businesses out of the policymaking process.
"Small companies are being priced out," Strouse said. "They pay nearly twice as much for health care as large companies. In my home county, family premiums in the small-group market have increased 85% in eight years.
The percentage of small firms providing health benefits has significantly dropped Strouse said.
In addition to working as a broker and benefits consultant herself, Strouse is active at the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals (NABIP). She is the president of the NABIP Iowa chapter.
Strouse and lawmakers at the hearing called for expanding access to health savings accounts, making HSA rules more flexible and improving Affordable Care Act premium tax credit subsidy support for workers using individual coverage health reimbursement accounts, or ICHRAs, to pay for their own individual health coverage.
"To have an HSA plan, you have to have a high-deductible health plan," Strouse said. "Well, in my world today, guess what: Every single plan is a high-deductible health plan."
Strouse called for letting workers combine HSAs with any type of health coverage and for increasing the maximum HSA contribution limits to be in line with health plan annual out-of-pocket spending limits.
This year, the HSA contribution limits are $4,300 for individuals and $8,550 for families. That compares with group health plan annual out-of-pocket maximums of $9,200 for employee-only coverage and $18,400 for family coverage.
Strouse also called for making it easier for workers to combine employer ICHRA cash with ACA premium tax credit subsidies,
Prescription Drug Data Collection and Reporting Deadline for 2025 Approaching—Applies to All Group Health Plans:
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), Title II, Division BB, includes an annual reporting requirement for group health plans and health insurers to submit data regarding drug costs to the Department of Treasury, Department of Labor (DOL), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Background
The CAA, 2021, included the No Surprises Act, which was intended to increase transparency in healthcare. Included in the act are annual reporting requirements related to prescription drug and healthcare spending data, referred to as RxDC requirements. The first reporting was due January 31, 2023, for 2020 and 2021 calendar years. Subsequent reporting is due annually on June 1.
Note: The law refers to the “plan year” for RxDC reporting. However, the law also changed the definition in the final rules to the same meaning as “reference year,” which means calendar year.
Plan Types
The reporting requirements apply to nearly all employer-sponsored health plans and all health insurance carriers. The following plans are required to report to HHS:
Fully insured group health plans
Self-funded group health plans
Non-federal government health plans
Church plans subject to Internal Revenue Code
Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) plans
Action Steps
Most fully-insured carriers will perform the reporting on behalf of the employer’s group health plan through a data collection process. To aid clients in this process, CBG will provide the necessary data to the carriers on behalf of clients for the carriers who are performing the reporting and accepting the necessary data from brokers.
If you have received a data collection request directly from your carrier partner in this regard, please feel free to reach out to your dedicated CBG representative if you would like to verify the status for your company. Our team has started the process of compiling the data to carriers and will notify employer groups once completed. With the exception of a couple of administrators who are not actively accepting data yet or not actively working with brokers on this reporting, our agency’s goal is to have all data requests completed by March 31, 2025.
Keep in mind, level-funded and self-funded group health plans may need to work directly with their third-party administrator (TPA), pharmacy benefits manager (PBM), or other reporting entity to complete the annual reporting to HHS. If this is questionable for your company, you are invited to verify the process for your benefits plan by contacting CBG directly.
New Year’s Roundup: Federal Edition 2025
The following federal law changes take effect on January 1, 2025, unless otherwise noted.
IRS Mileage Reimbursement Rate:
The IRS standard mileage rate will be 70 cents per mile driven for business purposes (up from 67 cents in 2024). This rate also applies to electric and hybrid vehicles.
Use of this rate is optional, though it’s widely accepted as an easy and standard reimbursement rate for employees who use their personal vehicle for work. If your organization uses the IRS rate to calculate mileage reimbursement, be sure to update your systems to account for this change.
EAD Automatic Extension Period Lengthened:
Since 2022, the Department of Homeland Security has had temporary rules in place that extended the automatic extension period for employment authorization and Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) from 180 days to 540 days (due to processing backlogs). A permanent final rule making this 540-day extension standard will take effect January 13, 2025.
The final rule will apply to certain renewal EAD applications pending or filed on or after May 4, 2022. You can learn more about EAD extensions here.
Federal Contractor Minimum Wage Increases:
The minimum wage for work performed on or in connection with federal contracts will increase as follows:
Contracts Covered by Executive Order 13658
The minimum wage will increase to $13.30 per hour, and the minimum base wage for tipped employees will increase to $9.30 per hour.
Contracts Covered by Executive Order 14026
The minimum wage will increase to $17.75 per hour for both tipped and non-tipped employees.
The Department of Labor has published helpful FAQs on Executive Order 13658 and Executive Order 14026. A side-by-side comparison of these executive orders, including the contracts covered by each, can be found here.
USCIS Extends Form I-9 Expiration Date
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has extended the expiration date of the current Form I-9 (Rev. 08/01/23) to May 31, 2027.
Employers that use the Form I-9 with the expiration date of July 31, 2026, can continue using it until that date. Effective July 31, 2026, only Form I-9 (Rev. 08/01/23) with the expiration date of May 31, 2027, will be accepted. Form I-9 with the updated expiration date can be found on the USCIS website. USCIS announced Form I-9’s new expiration date on August 2, 2024.
Federal: OSHA Form 300A Posting Begins February 1, Electronic Reporting Due March 2
Form 300A Workplace Posting Begins February 1
Covered employers that had 11 or more employees in the entire company at any point in 2024 are required to post the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Form 300A, Summary of Work-Related Injury and Illnesses, from February 1 through April 30. This requirement applies even if the company didn’t have any recordable incidents in 2024. OSHA Form 300A must be certified by a company executive and posted in each establishment in a conspicuous location where notices to employees are customarily posted.
Certain establishments are partially exempt from OSHA’s routine recordkeeping requirements, including this one, if they have 10 or fewer employees or if their primary business activity is classified as low hazard according to OSHA’s guidelines. A full list of exempt low-hazard industries, ordered by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, can be found here. (The exemption is “partial” because all employers must notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.)
Form 300A Electronic Submission Due by March 2
Covered establishments that had 250 or more employees in the prior calendar year, or 20–249 employees if they’re in certain high-risk industries, must submit their 2024 Form 300A data electronically using OSHA’s online Injury Tracking Application (ITA). The deadline to submit the report is March 2, 2025. These requirements are based on the size of each establishment (how many employees there are at the physical location), not how many employees are in the entire company. Most employers that are covered by a State Plan must also use the ITA to send data electronically.
Employers that meet any of the following criteria DO NOT have to send Form 300A information to OSHA:
They are partially exempt from OSHA’s routine recordkeeping requirements, as mentioned above.
They never had 20 or more employees during the previous calendar year, regardless of industry.
They had between 20 and 249 employees at some point during the previous calendar year but are NOT on this list of high-risk industries.
Additional information, FAQs, and the ITA can be found on OSHA’s ITA page.
Form 300 and Form 301 Electronic Submission Required by March 2
Covered establishments in designated high-hazard industries that had 100 or more employees in the prior calendar year will need to electronically submit information from their Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and Form 301, Injury and Illness Incident Report, through OSHA’s ITA. This is in addition to submitting information from their Form 300A.
Help Determining Coverage
Employers can use the ITA Coverage Application to determine if they’re required to electronically submit their injury and illness information or should review the applicable State Plan to determine reporting requirements.