Several compliance deadlines are approaching during (or soon after) the month of February.

Medicare Part D CMS Filing

• Annual CMS filings regarding creditable and/or non-creditable coverage under Medicare Part D regulations are due to be submitted online no later than February 28.
• Filing is not required if coverage is not offered to any Medicare-enrolled employee, retiree, or dependent as of the start of the plan year.
• Employers who were approved to receive a Retiree Drug Subsidy payment from CMS are exempt from reporting requirements, but only with respect to the individuals and plan options for which they claimed the subsidy.

Filing of Forms 1094-B/C and 1095-B/C to IRS

• ALE Info Center.

HIPAA Small Breach Reporting

• If a “small” (fewer than 500 individuals) HIPAA breach of unsecured protected health information occurred during 2021, HIPAA-covered entities must provide notification to the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) no later than March 1.
• Covered entities are required to notify impacted individuals of a breach no later than 60 days after the breach is discovered. Required small breach reporting to OCR has a fixed deadline of 60 days after the end of the calendar year in which the breach was discovered.
• In most cases, entities covered under a business associate agreement will not be subject to the March 1 deadline in the case of a HIPAA breach, since their reporting obligation is to the covered entity rather than to OCR (unless the covered entity has delegated such reporting obligations to the business associate).
• Each small breach must be reported separately through the online reporting system.

Form M-1 Filing Requirement for MEWAs

• Administrators of a multiple employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) that provides health benefits must file Form M-1 annually no later than March 1.
• The M-1 filing includes custodial, financial, and ERISA compliance information as well as information about a plan’s previous M-1 filings (required when a MEWA begins operating, expands operations into a new state, merges with another MEWA, experiences a 50% increase in the number of covered employees, or experiences a material change as defined by the M-1 instructions).
• Plans may be exempt from the M-1 filing requirement if they offer only excepted benefits, are not subject to ERISA, or are licensed as insurance issuers in each state in which they operate, as well as when certain special circumstances apply regarding their organization and the scope of their coverage.