Companies come to us for Benefits Solutions and one area we answer their challenges is serving as your Jungle Guide in Employee Benefits. This navigation is often missing from current broker/consultant services. They focus on Procurement, which is not a strategy, nor is it directional.

An example of us being the Trusted Jungle Guide, the year 2021, on its own and as the runway to 2022, is the most vexing benefits compliance environment plan sponsors have ever seen. Do you know All the obligations with which you must comply, this year and next? These obligations include:

Cafeteria plan and flexible spending account accommodations for the 2021 and 2022 plan years • Change to tax treatment of dependent care benefits (election amounts, carryovers, and limiting age for qualifying children) • Outbreak period guidance (suspension of COBRA and HIPAA special enrollment election deadlines, COBRA premium payment deadlines, and deadlines for submitting claims and appeals) • American Rescue Plan Act COBRA subsidies, and their interplay with the outbreak period guidance • Mental health parity non-quantitative analysis • Healthcare plan cost reporting • Prohibition on price and quality data gag clauses • Healthcare plan online price comparison tool (2022) • Healthcare plan “advance explanations of benefits” (2022) • Healthcare plan online “three machine-readable files” re in-network, out-of-network and prescription drug costs (2022) • Surprise billing requirements and protocols (2022) • New ID cards (2022) • New network accuracy requirements (2022) • New “continuity of care” disclosures (2022) • New broker/consultant/vendor compensation disclosure requirements (2022)

Lockton is proactive in alerting our clients to the obligations they face, and shepherding them through these obligations with practical, real-world advice that assesses not only the literal obligations but also the mechanics of compliance and the enforcement environment. We’ve prepared a 2021 Employer Playbook summarizing these vexing challenges and giving plan sponsors a practical “to do” list for each. Let me know if you’d like a copy.

At Lockton, our mission is to keep our clients “in the know, and out of trouble.”

Reach out to me via email if you would like a copy of the playbook. --@----.com