Join Mercer's November 14 Washington Update Briefing on employee health, fringe and retirement benefits.
Overview
An array of bipartisan bills in Congress aimed at lowering healthcare costs, making technical corrections to SECURE 2.0’s retirement changes, and expanding investment choices for 403(b) plans are on the table for possible action during the lame-duck session after the dust settles on the November elections.
On the healthcare regulatory front, highly-anticipated mental health parity rules adopted some—but not all—of the agencies’ controversial proposals aimed at reducing barriers to mental health and substance use disorder coverage. Plans have until 2026 to satisfy a new meaningful benefits standard and collect and evaluate outcomes data, but some requirements—including fiduciary certification about the service provider(s) preparing the plan’s comparative analysis—are effective in 2025. Meanwhile, litigation continues to challenge prior guidance, including the discrimination in health programs and activities rule (section 1557 of the ACA) and HIPAA tracking technology guidance, while plaintiffs challenge particular plan designs such as smoker surcharges and anti-obesity medication exclusions.
On the retirement side, IRS and DOL continue their work implementing elements of SECURE 2.0, including the Retirement Savings Lost and Found database, the new student loan match, and pension risk transfers. Separately, DOL resurrected its abandoned plan rule and streamlined the procedures for requesting prohibited transaction exemptions while IRS finalized some regulations for required minimum distributions. The IRS issued a private letter ruling that paves the way for a 401(k) plan sponsor to give employees flexibility to allocate an employer nonelective contribution among other tax-favored health and fringe benefit options.
Why attend
Learn about the latest federal policy developments affecting employee benefits including compliance challenges and post-election issues, as well as 2025 legislative and regulatory developments.
Who should attend
Plan sponsors, HR professionals and others who need information on the latest federal policy developments affecting employee benefits, including compliance challenges and post-election issues, as well as 2025 legislative and regulatory developments.
Experts from Mercer’s Law & Policy Group will discuss these and other issues during this live 90-minute webinar.
