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Kendra L. Roberson

Kendra Roberson has experience advising clients on a broad spectrum of employee benefits matters including tax-qualified retirement plans, employee stock ownership plans, executive compensation arrangements, stock option and other equity-based compensation plans, cafeteria plans, VEBAs, self-insured medical plans, and other health and welfare plans.  Her experience includes plan design and drafting, regulatory compliance, ERISA litigation, and handling employee benefits matters and plans in corporate transactions.  In addition, Ms. Roberson has extensive experience advising employers and state governments on compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”).

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Special Mandatory COBRA Subsidy in 2021 for Involuntarily Terminated Employees

By Kendra L. Roberson and Molly Ramsden on Posted in COVID-19, Health Plans
Section 9501 of the American Rescue Plan Act, 2021 (“ARPA”) provides for a complete COBRA premium subsidy for all Assistance Eligible Individuals beginning on April 1, 2021, and ending on September 30, 2021. This article discusses who qualifies as an Assistance Eligible Individual, the impact of the relief on such individuals, the impact of the … Continue Reading

Preserving HSA Eligibility With An Extended Health FSA Use-It-Or-Lose-It Period

By Kendra L. Roberson, Molly Ramsden and Sarah Friedman on Posted in COVID-19, Fringe Benefits, Welfare Plans
As we discussed in our previous blog post, Temporary Relief Allows Flexible Spending Arrangements to be More Flexible, Section 214 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Pub. L. 116-260 (the “Act”), allows employers to offer an extended use-it-or-lose-it and/or extended spend-down periods during which participants in a health flexible spending arrangement (“ health FSA”) may … Continue Reading

Temporary Relief Allows Flexible Spending Arrangements to be More Flexible

By Kendra L. Roberson, Molly Ramsden and Sarah Friedman on Posted in COVID-19, Fringe Benefits, Welfare Plans
Section 214 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Pub. L. 116-260 (the “Act”), allows sponsors of health and dependent care flexible spending arrangements (“FSAs”) to delay forfeitures of unused account balances for 2020 and 2021 plan years and grant participants, including former participants, more time to spend down account balances. Section 214 and implementing guidance … Continue Reading

Five New Ways That Plan Fiduciaries May Locate Missing Participants

By Kendra L. Roberson and James Damon on Posted in Defined Benefit Plans, Defined Contributions Plans
On January 12, 2021, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (“EBSA”) of the Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced new guidance on a range of issues related to missing participants: In Missing Participants – Best Practices for Pension Plans, EBSA has provided examples of best practices that it has identified as being effective at minimizing and mitigating … Continue Reading

Final Rules Require Health Plans to Publicly Disclose Reimbursement Rates

By Kendra L. Roberson and Megan Woodford on Posted in Health Plans, Welfare Plans
On October 29, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury released the final “Transparency in Coverage” rule. The rule requires most group health plans and issuers to provide individualized cost-sharing information to participants, beneficiaries and enrollees upon request, and to publicly disclose in-network provider … Continue Reading

Electronic Disclosure Rule for Pension Plans Finalized

By Christen Sewell and Kendra L. Roberson on Posted in Defined Benefit Plans, Defined Contributions Plans
On May 27, 2020, the Department of Labor (“DOL” or “Department”) published a final rule providing an alternative safe harbor for furnishing ERISA pension plan disclosures electronically on a website or via email.  We previously blogged about the proposed rule here.  This post provides an overview of the final rule and highlights some key changes … Continue Reading

IRS Empowers Employers to Increase Health Coverage, FSA Election Flexibility During Pandemic; Clarifies HDHP COVID-19 Relief

By Kendra L. Roberson, Sarah Friedman and Julie Edmond on Posted in COVID-19, Welfare Plans
On May 12, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) published Notices 2020-29 and 2020-33. Notice 2020-29 is the latest installment in COVID-19 relief guidance targeted at health and welfare benefits. The Notice enables employers to provide flexibility to employees to modify their health coverage and flexible spending account (“FSA”) elections and gives employees until the … Continue Reading

Tri-Agency Guidance Clarifies Some FFCRA and CARES Act Health & Welfare Provisions

By Kendra L. Roberson and Sarah Friedman on Posted in COVID-19
On April 11, 2020, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services issued joint guidance on certain provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (“FFCRA”) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act relating to health and welfare benefits.  This post analyzes some of the key provisions in the guidance.… Continue Reading

IRS Clears the Way for High Deductible Plans to Waive Cost Sharing for Coronavirus Testing

By Kendra L. Roberson on Posted in Health Plans
The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance (Notice 2020-15) that allows sponsors of high deductible health plans (“HDHPs”) to reimburse up to the full cost of medical care services and items for testing and treatment of COVID-19 before plan participants meet the plan’s minimum statutory deductible.  Accordingly, participants in a HDHP that waives cost sharing … Continue Reading

COVID-19: Your Health Plans and Your Business Response

By Kendra L. Roberson on Posted in Health Plans
Businesses are rapidly developing strategies to continue functioning and protect their workforces in the face of the growing Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. For obvious reasons, businesses may want to deploy health screening, testing, and professional medical advice services—including telemedicine—to their employees and dependents. It is critical that employers’ health plans support these efforts and not get … Continue Reading

DOL Proposal for Electronic Disclosure of ERISA Pension Documents

By William Woolston, Kendra L. Roberson and Sarah Friedman on Posted in Defined Benefit Plans
In October, the U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule that would increase plan administrators’ ability to make certain required ERISA pension disclosures through electronic, rather than paper, delivery.  Below is a summary of the proposed rule with some highlights on aspects of the proposal that have been questioned by interested parties and might … Continue Reading

Group Health Plans Face Automatic Public Disclosure of Negotiated Rates and Plan Payments

By Kendra L. Roberson and Megan Woodford on Posted in Health Plans
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury released a new “Transparency in Coverage” proposed rule that requires most group health plans and issuers to publicly disclose negotiated rates with in-network providers and historical data showing amounts paid for covered items or services furnished by out-of-network providers.  In addition, group health plans and … Continue Reading

Beware Laws Intersecting Benefit Concierge Services

By Kendra L. Roberson and Christopher Lowther on Posted in Fringe Benefits
(This article was originally published in Law360 and has been modified for this blog.) Employers commonly offer a wide array of employee benefit plans and programs.  In addition to traditional staples, many employers today offer an employee assistance program, dependent care, accident insurance and even pet insurance.  In an increasingly competitive labor market, offering a … Continue Reading

DOL Finalizes Highly Anticipated Rule Aimed at Expanding Access to Association Health Plans

By Kendra L. Roberson and Nick Pastan on Posted in Health Plans
In January, we posted about the Department of Labor’s (DOL or the “Department”) proposed rule to allow more Association Health Plans (AHPs) to be regulated as large group health plans.  The proposed rule garnered national attention and the Department received over 900 stakeholder comments from consumer groups, individual employers, employer associations, health insurance issuers, business … Continue Reading

Supreme Court Deals Another Blow to Sixth Circuit’s “Yard-Man Inferences”

By Nick Pastan and Kendra L. Roberson on Posted in Health Plans, Welfare Plans
On February 20, 2018, the Supreme Court decided CNH Industrial N.V. v. Reese, 574 U.S. ___ (2018), which raised, for the second time in three years, the question of how courts should interpret collective-bargaining agreements (“CBAs”).  Reese involved a dispute between retirees and their former employer, CNH, about whether an expired 1998 CBA created a … Continue Reading

Learning to Live with Clawbacks: The New, Long String on Executive Compensation

By Kendra L. Roberson and Rasmus Berglund on Posted in Employee Trade Secret Theft, Employment, Executive Compensation (US), International
Existing rules in Europe require, and proposed rules in the U.S. would require, companies and financial institutions to have in place effective clawback policies.  Under such policies, employers have the ability to recover compensation paid to employees when certain events occur or information comes to light that could have an adverse effect on the employer. … Continue Reading

DOL Issues Guidance on Its Broad View of Joint Employment

By Lindsay Burke and Kendra L. Roberson on Posted in Employment
On January 20, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued new guidance on joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  The guidance marks the third time in recent years that WHD has stressed the broad definition of “employment” under the FLSA, following June 2014 guidance on joint employment in the … Continue Reading

EEOC Seeks to Stop Use of Financial Incentives for Wellness Program Participation

By Kendra L. Roberson on Posted in Health Plans, Welfare Plans
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has requested that the United States District Court of Minnesota stop Honeywell from implementing a wellness program that would provide financial incentives for undergoing biometric screenings.  The EEOC is challenging Honeywell’s program on grounds that it would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination … Continue Reading
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