As mentioned in our recent blog post, the recently filed class action lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson (Lewandowski v. Johnson & Johnson et. al., D.N.J., No. 1:24-cv-00671 (Feb. 5, 2024)) over alleged excessive prescription drug costs takes a new approach with respect to familiar claims of breach of fiduciary duty for failure to monitor plan costs. Instead of targeting retirement plan fiduciaries, who have been a common target of excessive fee litigation over the last several years, the Lewandowski plaintiffs take aim at the actions of welfare plan fiduciaries.

While the sweltering roil of temporary regulatory changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic may have cooled and the initial burst of SECURE 2.0 steam begins to dissipate, sponsors of employee benefit plans should keep their eyes on several hot button issues during the remainder of 2024 as these issues continue to percolate.

This post was updated on February 6, 2024, to reflect the 2024 Federal Poverty Level announced in January 2024.

On August 23, 2023, the Internal Revenue Service issued Rev. Proc. 2023-29, announcing that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affordability threshold will be 8.39% for plan years beginning in 2024, a substantial decrease from the 9.12% affordability threshold set for plan year 2023. This marks the largest change yet in the affordability thresholds year-over-year. The affordability threshold is used to determine whether employer-sponsored health coverage is affordable for purposes of the ACA’s employer-shared responsibility provisions.