Reproductive Healthcare Benefits Task Force

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Family building benefits continue to be top of mind as employers and plan sponsors implement new benefit programs to support family building journeys for their employees.  At the same time, there have been a few recent lawsuits challenging health plan eligibility criteria for infertility treatment coverage.  This post summarizes the recent litigation and challenges for…

As discussed in our prior blog post, on April 26, 2024, the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued final regulations (“Reproductive Health Care Rule”) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) limiting the uses and disclosures of protected health information (“PHI”) in…

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug mifepristone, which is used as part of a two-drug protocol to induce abortion.  The Court ruled that the providers seeking to overturn the FDA approval did not have standing, because the providers were not directly…

The Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) at the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) recently issued final regulations (“Reproductive Health Care Rule”) under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) that narrow the permitted uses and disclosures of protected health information (“PHI”) in the context of an individual seeking, obtaining, providing…

The Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) recently issued guidance for group health plans outlining a “therapeutic equivalence” medical management technique for required preventive services coverage of contraceptives. The guidance, which was issued in the form of FAQs that can be downloaded here, builds on previous FAQs addressing required…

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a Texas federal district court order revoking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug mifepristone, which is used as part of a two-drug regimen to induce abortion.  The Fifth Circuit vacated the district…

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.

Employers and other group health plan sponsors are left with much to consider following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which  overruled the Supreme Court’s prior landmark decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.  Those cases solidified a federal constitutional right to obtain an…