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Jennifer Rigterink is senior counsel in the Labor Department and a member of the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Group.

Jennifer focuses on a diverse array of tax and ERISA issues impacting employee benefits.  Her wide-ranging practice encompasses qualified retirement plans and non-qualified arrangements, health and welfare benefits, and fringe benefit programs.  She counsels single-employer and multiemployer clients on matters pertaining to plan administration, design and qualification, as well as regulatory, legislative and legal compliance.

In recent years, Jennifer has advised employers and plan sponsors with fiduciary and governance matters applicable to defined benefit plans and pension de-risking activities, including lump sum window programs, annuity purchases, and pension plan terminations.

Jennifer frequently counsels clients on health and welfare arrangements, with a particular focus on all matters relating to family building and reproductive health care benefits.  Her experience also includes working with employers and plan sponsors on mental health parity compliance issues.

Prior to joining Proskauer, Jennifer clerked for Judge Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Yvette Kane in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Last Friday, the United States Supreme Court stayed a federal district court order that suspended  the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone, which is used as part of a two-drug regimen to induce abortion.  This decision means that mifepristone will remain available subject to current FDA dispensation guidelines while the appeal of the district court’s decision proceeds through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (and potentially the Supreme Court).  Although the Supreme Court’s decision returns mifepristone access to the status quo for the time being, it creates a number of questions for employers and other benefit plan sponsors with respect to abortion coverage in group health plans, which we discuss below.

Important Update: Based on informal comments from the U.S. Department of Labor, it appears that the tolling of benefit plan deadlines will end on July 10, 2023, as described in our earlier blog on this subject, notwithstanding the legislation that was signed on Monday ending the COVID-19 National Emergency on April 10th

Update: On April 10, 2023, President Biden signed into law legislation ending the COVID-19 National Emergency prior to the previously announced May 11, 2023 date.  See our blog on this new development here.  The legislation does not impact the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. 

Earlier this week, the Departments of Labor, Treasury,

On February 23, 2023, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) issued new guidance (in the form of FAQs) implementing the No Surprises Act’s prohibition on “gag clauses” in agreements between health plans and service providers.  While the attestation requirement has been effective since December 27, 2020, the Departments had

On the heels of several recent court decisions concerning gender-affirming care, a federal district court in Washington concluded that the denial of benefits for gender-affirming care by a third-party administrator (“TPA”) administering a self-insured plan violated Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”).  By way of background, Section 1557 sets

As part of our ongoing series on SECURE 2.0, this post discusses three significant changes to corrections of common retirement plan errors: (1) New rules for correcting overpayments, (2) expansion of the Self-Correction Program under the IRS’s Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (“EPCRS”) to cover most inadvertent errors, and (3) making permanent the current

Just three short days before the December 27th deadline for health plans and issuers to report prescription drug and health care spending information to the government, on December 23, 2022, the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) issued undoubtedly welcome reporting relief for health plans and issuers facing difficulty

The wait is over for SECURE 2.0, a long-awaited (and debated) package of retirement plan reforms.  Today, Congress passed the “SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022” as part of the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act; President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law soon. The bill text may be viewed here, and the Senate

Updated November 15, 2022

On October 11, 2022, the IRS and the Treasury Department released final regulations relating to premium tax credit eligibility for families, along with companion cafeteria plan guidance in Notice 2022-41.[1]  The final regulations are expected to extend eligibility for premium tax credits to some dependents who were previously ineligible for