Health & Welfare

Health and welfare benefits have become increasingly important to employees. At the same time, public sector employers face a unique and especially complex set of challenges when structuring health and welfare plans for their employees. Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation lawyers advise hundreds of public sector employers, including municipalities, special districts, school districts and other public sector clients. We offer an unrivaled level of experience and knowledge to develop, structure and administer health and welfare benefits plans that fully comply with the complicated and ever-evolving applicable laws. 
 
We advise on all types of health and welfare benefits, such as:

• Major medical insurance plans, whether insured, partially insured or fully self-insured
• Other health benefit plans, such as dental and vision plans
• Reimbursements plans, including Affordable Care Act-compliant health reimbursement arrangements, also known as HRAs, and health savings accounts, known as HSAs
• Cafeteria plans, including health flexible spending accounts and dependent care assistance programs
• Funding vehicles for health and welfare benefits, such as Section 115 trusts and VEBAs
• Other welfare benefits, such as employee assistance programs, group life insurance, individual illness policies, disability, retirement health savings plans and accident insurance 

 
Our team has extensive experience with the ACA, HIPAA, COBRA and Cal-COBRA. We also advise clients regarding the impact of Flores v. San Gabriel on their Fair Labor Standards Act overtime calculations when they offer cash payments under a cafeteria plan.
 
Additionally, we provide tax advice regarding other fringe benefits employers may make available to their employees, including the tax implications of benefits such as employer-provided cell phones, educational incentives, transportation allowances, and employer-owned vehicles and car allowances.