Employee Benefit Plans: Impact of Coronavirus

Vorys attorneys Christine Poth, Jen Dunsizer, Dawne McKenna Parrish, and Elizabeth Howard hosted a complimentary webinar on March 25, 2020.

They discussed some common questions the Vory benefits team was getting about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on employee benefit plans, including:

• Scope of the testing/treatment expansion under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (Family First Act)
• Impact of temporary leaves of absences and terminations on employee benefits:
  • Group health plan coverage during leaves of absence
  • Requirement to offer COBRA continuation coverage and mini-COBRA
  • Changes to dependent care flexible spending account elections

• Retirement plan issues
  • Ability to take distributions (hardship withdrawals and termination-based distributions)
  • Impact on plan loan repayments
  • Reduction, freeze, or cessation of employer contributions
  • Impact on Family First Act payments on definition of compensation
  • Impact on defined benefit plan funding
• Overview of issues impacting executive compensation
  • Ability to delay/accelerate distributions
  • Amending equity awards that would otherwise be forfeited