The Washington Report
January 08, 2025
Note to Subscribers
While we do our best to provide timely updates, it is possible that the information shared in the newsletter may change after our publication deadline.
Health
CMS Releases Fact Sheet on 64 Part B Drugs With Coinsurance Reduction From January 1, 2025 – March 31, 2025
On December 20, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that some Medicare enrollees will pay less for 64 drugs available through Medicare Part B. The drugs will have a lowered Part B coinsurance rate from January 1, 2025, through March 31, 2025, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. For additional information please refer to the Fact Sheet.
The news release is available here.
The Fact Sheet is available here.
Retirement
PBGC Releases Final Rule on Assets in Single-Employer Plans; Valuation of Benefits and Assets; Expected Retirement Age; Missing Participants Mortality
On December 19, 2024, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) released a final rule amending the regulation on Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans by substituting a new table for determining expected retirement ages for participants in pension plans undergoing distress or involuntary termination with valuation dates falling in 2025. This table is needed to compute the value of early retirement benefits and the total value of benefits under a plan. The final rule also provides the mortality assumption for use with PBGC’s missing participants program for determination dates in 2025. The final rule became effective on January 1, 2025.
The final rule is available here.
Other HR/Employment
EEOC Releases Fact Sheet on “Wearables in the Workplace: The Use of Wearables and Other Monitoring Technology Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws”
On December 20, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a new Fact Sheet (Wearables in the Workplace: The Use of Wearables and Other Monitoring Technology Under Federal Employment Discrimination Laws). The guidance addresses the use of wearable technologies in the workplace. These technologies can be used to track various physical factors, such as an employee’s location, heart rate, electrical brain activity, or fatigue. The Fact Sheet “reminds employers that employment discrimination laws apply to the collection and use of information from wearables. It also addresses the need for employers to provide reasonable accommodations related to wearables.”
The news release is available here.
The Fact Sheet is available here.
IRS Publishes 2025 Standard Mileage Rates
On December 19, 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Notice 2025-5, which announced that the optional standard mileage rate for automobiles driven for business will increase by 3 cents in 2025, while the mileage rates for vehicles used for other purposes will remain unchanged from 2024. Beginning January 1, 2025, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be:
- 70 cents per mile driven for business use, up 3 cents from 2024.
- 21 cents per mile driven for medical purposes, the same as in 2024.
- 21 cents per mile driven for moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the Armed Forces, unchanged from last year.
- 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, equal to the rate in 2024.
Notice 2025-5 contains the optional 2025 standard mileage rates, as well as the maximum automobile cost used to calculate mileage reimbursement allowances under a fixed-and variable-rate plan. The Notice also provides the maximum fair market value of employer-provided automobiles first made available to employees for personal use in 2025 for which employers may calculate mileage allowances using a cents-per-mile valuation rule or the fleet-average-valuation rule.
The news release is available here.
IRS Notice 2025-5 is available here.
Aon Publications
Congress Passes Spending Bill That Does Not Extend HSA Telehealth Provisions
Over the weekend of December 20, 2024, the House and Senate passed legislation that will keep the government funded until mid-March 2025. While avoiding a government shutdown before the holidays, the legislation did not include several health care provisions of interest to employer group health plan sponsors, including provisions extending an employer’s ability to pay for telehealth services before the deductible in Heath Savings Account (HSA)-eligible High Deductible Health Plans. The spending bill passed by Congress also did not include several provisions related to Pharmacy Benefit Manager and other transparency requirements that had been included in a much-publicized version released earlier in the week.
The Aon bulletin is available here.
Deadline Relief Applies to Plans and Participants Affected by 2024 Hurricanes
The Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service have dusted off their COVID-era playbooks to help ERISA health and welfare plans, plan fiduciaries, and participants impacted by Hurricane Helene, Tropical Storm Helene, or Hurricane Milton (Covered Disaster areas).
The agencies have extended certain deadlines for distributing notices, filing claims, making payments, and certain other actions under COBRA, HIPAA, ERISA, and the Internal Revenue Code. Deadline relief will impact all ERISA plans that have participants residing, living, or working in specified areas affected by the storms, as well as participants and employers with certain geographic connections to the storm areas.
This Aon bulletin discusses:
- Covered Disaster areas;
- Good-faith relief for affected ERISA employee benefit plans;
- Participant deadline relief; and
- Next steps for plan sponsors.
The Aon bulletin is available here.
IRS Issues Adjusted PCORI Fee for Plan Sponsors
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2024-83 announcing the applicable Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fee for plan years that end on or after October 1, 2024, and before October 1, 2025 (e.g., the applicable PCORI fee for 2025 calendar year plans).
The Aon bulletin is available here.