Amber Roberts

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Amber Roberts focuses her practice on the design and implementation of qualified and non-qualified retirement and deferred compensation plans, welfare plans, cafeteria plans, and other employee benefit programs for both public and private companies. She assists clients on executive compensation and benefits issues arising in the context of mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate matters. Amber also helps clients maintain compliance with the federal laws and regulations associated with these plans, including ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code, COBRA, HIPAA, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, performance-based compensation, fringe benefits, privacy matters, and state regulatory guidance and withdrawal liability for multiemployer plans.

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Employers Concerned about State Abortion Access Restrictions Weigh Options for Medical Travel Reimbursements

By Beth Alcalde and Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employee Handbooks & Policies
There has never been an ERISA requirement to include elective abortion medical coverage in ERISA group health plans. Even so, many nationwide employers choose to offer it alongside non-elective abortion medical coverage.  Among those employer plan sponsors, there is new concern about how plan participants can practically access this covered medical care, if expensive travel … Continue Reading

Deadline Triggered as COBRA Premium Subsidy Ends

By Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits
Employers and plans are reminded that they must provide a COBRA subsidy expiration notice no later than September 15, 2021, pursuant to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). ARPA had included some new COBRA obligations for both employers and participants. In particular, as noted in our previous posts, ARPA established a 100 percent … Continue Reading

Deadline Looms to Notify Current and FORMER Employees of COBRA Premium Subsidy

By Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention
Employers, if you had employees who had been on your group health plan who were involuntarily terminated or whose hours were reduced as early as November 1, 2019, read this! If those employees became eligible for COBRA and did not elect COBRA coverage when it was first offered, OR if they originally elected it but … Continue Reading

ARPA COBRA Premium Subsidy – Time for Employer Plans to Update COBRA Notices

By Beth Alcalde and Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employee Handbooks & Policies, Wage & Hour
Employers should be busy preparing tailored COBRA continuation coverage notices for certain individuals, addressing complicated election and altered COBRA premium topics that took effect only in recent weeks. Below, we offer practical summaries and specific timing suggestions for the anxiously awaited model notices that have now been released. Notices will soon reach Americans who could … Continue Reading

ERISA Plan Sponsors – Watch Your Participants’ Data! DOL Issues New Cybersecurity Guidance for Retirement Plans

By Beth Alcalde, Elizabeth F. Hodge and Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits
In response to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report recommending federal guidance to mitigate cybersecurity risks in retirement plans and to respond to ever-increasing cyber threats to plan participant data and plan assets, the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) published its first cybersecurity guidance for plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, record keepers, and plan … Continue Reading

New COBRA Obligations for Employers Included in Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Stimulus

By Beth Alcalde and Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits
For employers with group health plans, COBRA obligations under President Biden’s premiere $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the “Rescue Plan”) are an early priority. The Rescue Plan was signed by the President on March 11, 2021. Below is an overview of the Rescue Plan’s COBRA relief, which provides a … Continue Reading

Don’t Get Bitten—COBRA and Costly Consequences of Non-Compliant Notices

By Amber Roberts and Blog Admin on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention, Employment Litigation
COBRA: an acronym that strikes fear (and understandable confusion) into the hearts of many employers. If you have 20 or more employees, you are subject to the often equivocal requirements of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act—and the consequences of non-compliance can be poisonous. Given the increase in COBRA-related lawsuits and the Department of Labor’s … Continue Reading

CARES Act Impacts to Employer-Sponsored Health and Welfare Benefit Plans

By Beth Alcalde and Amber Roberts on Posted in Employee Benefits, Employment Counseling & Workplace Claims Prevention
Health and welfare benefit plans and insurers are affected by various provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) passed on March 27, 2020. In addition to provisions impacting tax-qualified retirement plans and executive compensation (summarized here), the CARES Act affects coverage of diagnostic testing, preventive services, telehealth services, and drug … Continue Reading
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