Compliance Bulletin | February/March 2024

Welcome to the February/March 2024 edition of the Baldwin Bulletin, a compliance newsletter by the Baldwin Regulatory Compliance Collaborative (BRCC).

The Baldwin Bulletin serves as a monthly guide to important regulatory developments, legal news, and employee benefits-related industry happenings designed to keep you abreast of the latest developments.

This month’s issue focuses on important upcoming compliance deadlines and includes our timeline of upcoming compliance requirements, in addition to providing information regarding certain hot-button compliance issues significantly impacting employers.

Upcoming Compliance Deadlines. For information regarding upcoming compliance deadlines for employer-sponsored group health plans, read more here.

2024 Federal Poverty Guidelines Announced. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the U.S. Federal poverty guidelines for 2024. Many employers use this guideline to set the premium costs for the lowest cost health plan that is offered to employees in order to satisfy the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) Safe Harbor under the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility provisions. Read more here. 

IRS Reduces ACA Penalties for 2025. The IRS released Revenue Procedure 2024-14, which decreased the 2025 penalty amounts related to the employer shared responsibility rules under the Affordable Care Act. Read more here.

CMS Releases Revised RxDC Reporting Instructions. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released revised reporting instructions to be used when completing the prescription drug data collection (RxDC) reporting due June 1, 2024, for the 2023 reference year. Read more here.

FAQs Issued on Coverage for Contraceptive Services. A set of frequently asked questions have been issued regarding regulations relating to preventive care services that non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act without cost-sharing. Read more here.

HIPAA Security Rule Guide Updated.  The Office for Civil Rights and the National Institute of Standards and Technology have published a final version of their guidance to assist HIPAA covered entities and their business associates with improving cybersecurity and compliance with HIPAA’s Security Rule. Read more here.

HHS Issues Annual Report on HIPAA Compliance. The Office of Civil Rights has issued its annual report to Congress on HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rule Compliance for the 2022 calendar year.  Read more here.

DOL 2023 Audit Enforcement Results. The Department of Labor has released the results of its Employee Benefits Security Administration’s enforcement actions during fiscal year 2023 Read more here.

Enforcement of California Privacy Rights Act Regulations May Begin Immediately. A California appellate court recently vacated a lower court decision and gave a green light for the California Privacy Protection Agency to begin enforcing its regulations under the California Privacy Rights Act, effective immediately. See more here.

2024 HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule Training Calendar. This year’s BRCC HIPAA training calendar is available here.

2024 BRCC Educational Webinar Calendar. The BRCC’s monthly educational webinar series calendar for 2024 is available here.

Question of the Month. Our “Question of the Month” concerns the payroll practice safe harbor exemption from ERISA. Read more here.