WILLIAMSON, WV – The U.S. Department of Labor has taken legal action after an investigation by its Employee Benefits Security Administration found the former CEO of a West Virginia hospital, who was a fiduciary of the company’s healthcare plan, failed to forward contributions to the plan. This led to the plan’s cancellation and left participating employees with a significant number of unpaid claims – and without health coverage.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced the release of Interpretive Bulletin 2022-01 updating its guidance on the “independence” requirement for accountants who audit employee benefit plans under section 103(a)(3)(A) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury today issued final rules concerning standards related to the arbitration process implementing the No Surprises Act, a bipartisan law to protect consumers against surprise medical bills.

NEW YORK –Trustees to the Teamsters Local 272 Welfare Fund in New York City have agreed to amend the fund to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor, regarding a fund requirement that participants bear 90 percent of the cost of medical and pharmacy claims above certain annual thresholds.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced a proposed amendment to the Class Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-14, also known as the Qualified Professional Asset Manager Exemption, to ensure the exemption continues to protect plans, participants and beneficiaries, individual retirement account owners and their interests.

WASHINGTON – In an effort to better understand long COVID-19 in U.S. workplaces, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Surgeon General are inviting the public to join a national online dialogue beginning today to gather ideas to better support workers coping with symptoms, their co-workers and their employers.

COLUMBUS, OHIO – A federal judge sentenced Cindy Hardway – a Newark, Ohio resident – to six months in prison on July 8, 2022, after she pleaded guilty to one count of theft of public money and one count of theft or embezzlement from an employee benefit plan. Hardway’s guilty plea comes after she collected $254,116 from her deceased father’s pension fund and Social Security following his death in 2005.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – A federal court in Miami has sentenced the former medical director of a West Palm Beach residential addiction recovery center to prison and ordered more than $31 million in restitution paid as part of a healthcare scheme to obtain reimbursement for $106 million in false claims to more than 80 private insurance companies and federal healthcare benefit programs.

MILWAUKEE – A federal judge has sentenced the former president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1295 – a dockworkers’ union known as the Milwaukee Grain Trimmers – to home confinement of 240 consecutive days, 2 years of probation, ordered to pay a $200 special assessment and $219,000 in restitution to the union and its employee benefit plan.

CLEVELAND, OH – A North Royalton businessman who failed to pay payroll taxes to the IRS and embezzled health care premiums deducted from his employees’ checks, will spend the next two years in prison and pay restitution of $558,697 to the IRS and $3,807 to the participants of his companies’ health care plan.

CLEARWATER, FL – Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky has sentenced Nitesh Patel to serve 12 months’ probation, including 12 months of home confinement following his Nov. 3, 2021, guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.

BALTIMORE – A federal court in Maryland has entered a consent judgment requiring a Baltimore logistics, engineering and management support company and its owner to restore $148,852 in missing contributions and interest to its 401(k) plan.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the IRS and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. today released a Federal Register Notice announcing changes to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, and related instructions, that apply beginning with 2022 plan year reports.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra met with health insurance and business leaders on May 3 to discuss compliance with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, adequacy of in-network providers and mental health and substance use disorder treatment during the pandemic, as the nation observes Mental Health Awareness Month.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the appointment of seven members and leadership for the 2022 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, also known as the ERISA Advisory Council.

The 15-member council provides advice on policies and regulations affecting employee benefit plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced that the department is extending the public comment period for proposed amendments to its procedures governing the filing and processing of Prohibited Transaction Exemption Applications by an additional 45 days, through May 29, 2022.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today published compliance assistance for 401(k) plan fiduciaries considering plan investments in cryptocurrencies, in an effort aimed at protecting the retirement savings of U.S. workers.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced proposed amendments in its procedures governing the filing and processing of Prohibited Transaction Exemption applications. 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a final notice of amendments to six class exemptions from the prohibited transaction rules in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code. 

CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court in Illinois to hold fiduciaries of the United Employee Benefit Fund, along with its counsel, liable for more than $2.8 million in losses after an investigation found they allowed the misappropriation of the fund’s assets. A Chicago-based multiple employer welfare arrangement, UEBF provides life insurance benefits to about 63 nationwide employer-sponsored benefit plans.