Judith Wethall

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Judith Wethall focuses her practice on employee benefits, specifically health and welfare programs. She counsels employers, plan administrators, insurers and consultants on a wide range of ERISA compliance issues. Judith's clients include sole proprietors to Fortune 100 companies and cover a variety of industries including health care, technology, manufacturing, insurance and financial. Read Judith's full bio.

Connect: Read more about Judith Wethall
Firm/Organization: McDermott Will & Emery
Blogs: Employee Benefits Blog, Health & Life Sciences News

Latest Articles

Join us Friday, May 17, as Allison Wilkerson, Brian Tiemann and Sarah Engle join host Judith Wethall to talk through the value of conducting a proactive self-audit of 401(k) plans. They will provide best practices designed to reduce the risk of costly government investigations. Attendees will come away prepared and confident in their position, and ready to respond assertively if an investigation comes to pass. Our lively 45-minute discussion will cover the following points: Self-auditing…
Last week, the Department of Labor (DOL) responded to the district court decision striking down the final regulations expanding the ability for a group of unrelated employers to form an organization in order to offer health care to its members. The DOL’s statement setting forth policy positions regarding association health plans (AHPs) indicated its intent to fight the district court decision, and offered interim relief for those employers who have obtained health coverage from AHPs…
Join us Friday, April 19 as Erin Turley and Judith Wethall discuss some of the innovative strategies organizations are employing to achieve transparency, reduce fees and provide enhanced offerings when negotiating multi-year health and welfare benefit plan contracts. Our lively 45-minute discussion will cover emerging trends you can leverage at the negotiating table, including Pharmacy Pricing Transparency Data Access/Ownership Rights Performance Guarantees and Other Rebates Friday, March 15, 2019 10:00 – 10:45 am PST 11:00…
On March 28, a District of Columbia federal court agreed with a New York-led challenge by a group of 11 states and the District of Columbia and found that the Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2018 association health plan (AHP) rule (the Final Rule): Is contrary to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)’s text and purpose; and Circumvents the protections and standards of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The decision, penned by Judge…
On January 14, 2019, US District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s carveouts to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraceptive coverage mandate. One day prior, US District Judge Haywood Gilliam in the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued a more limited injunction blocking the same carve outs from taking effect in 13 states plus…
What to expect in 2019 and how to prepare now. Join McDermott lawyers Judith Wethall, Ted Becker and Rick Pearl for an interactive discussion regarding ERISA litigation trends. Join our lively 45-minute discussion while we tackle the following items: Plaintiffs’ law firm’s solicitations Health & Welfare Fee Litigation Defined-Benefit Plan Litigation – Actuarial Equivalence lawsuits and greater concern about discretionary decisions Stock-Drop Cases – The Jander decision: Relaxing the Dudenhoeffer standard and the potential impact…
Late in the afternoon on Friday, December 14, Federal US District Judge Reed O’Connor struck down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in its entirety, a feat that was, for the past few years, unsuccessfully attempted by the Republican-led Congress. O’Connor reasoned that if the individual mandate is no longer valid, the entire ACA must also be scrapped, because the rest of the ACA is “inseverable” from the individual mandate. The opinion is likely to be…
Join us Friday, December 7 for our monthly Fridays With Benefits webinar. New proposed rules make the HRA an interesting option for employers beginning in 2020. Join McDermott lawyers for an interactive discussion regarding the “Integrated HRA” the “Excepted Benefit HRA” and the medical plan design opportunities they present. Join our lively 45-minute discussion while we tackle the following items: Can we really get out of the medical coverage game? How does the Integrated HRA…
Yesterday, the IRS released Notice 2018-94. This notice extends the due date for furnishing to individuals the 2018 Form 1095-B, Health Coverage, and the 2018 Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage from January 31, 2019 to March 4, 2019. Note that the 1095-C reporting to the IRS has not been extended. The deadline for filing to the IRS is February 28, 2019 (if not filing electronically) or April 1, 2019, if filing electronically. This…
Any employer who has six or more employees in Massachusetts in any calendar month after November 2017 is required to complete a Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure (HIRD) form by November 30, 2018. The HIRD form is used by MassHealth to collect information about employer-sponsored insurance offerings. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue recently published a set of FAQs stating that the HIRD form: Is filed by an employer through the employer’s MassTaxConnect web portal (the employer…