President Biden recently released his Fiscal Year 2024 budget. The budget includes a variety of health and retirement proposals.

See the IRS General Explanation here: General Explanations of the Administration’s Revenue Proposals for Fiscal Year 2024

While there is no guarantee that any of the provisions will be implemented, the budget may give #employers and third-party administrators (TPA) a view of what’s “around the bend”… if not this year, then perhaps in subsequent years.

On the retirement side, one provision would target excessive accumulations by high-income taxpayers in tax-favored retirement accounts (e.g., requiring certain high-income taxpayers with an aggregate vested account balance > $10 million as of the last day of the preceding calendar year to distribute a minimum of 50% of that excess).

For health and welfare plans, the budget would:

  1. require group health plans and insurers to cover, per year, 3 behavioral health visits and 3 primary care visits without cost-sharing;
  2. provide mandatory funding for state enforcement of mental health parity rules, as well as more funding to the #DOL to perform nonquantitative treatment limitations (“NQTL”) audits; and
  3. provide additional funding for No Surprises Act implementation and compliance, and extending No Surprises Act surprise billing protections to ground ambulances.

While many of the budget proposals are unlikely to become law in their current form, employers and TPAs should keep an eye on developments and discuss current initiatives with their ERISA counsel, so to get ahead of any planning needs, operational or plan document changes, and to generally maximize any new opportunities.