ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA

Three landmark pieces of legislation have been enacted within the last forty years; ERISA, COBRA and HIPAA. Each one of these laws was created to foster development and improvement in the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States. The mainstays of these three pieces of legislation are to improve working conditions; to add advanced opportunities for profitable employment, protect employees, and to assure work related benefits and rights. What is ERISA? ERISA stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act. ERISA regulates the establishment and implementation of discretionary benefits practices. Since its enactment in 1974, ERISA has been amended to meet the changing retirement and health care needs of employees, retirees, and their families.
The provisions of ERISA, which are administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, were enacted to address public concern that funds of private pension plans were being mismanaged and abused. ERISA was the culmination of a long line of legislation concerned with the labor and tax aspects of employee benefit plans.
The benefits of ERISA were originally implemented to provide medical insurance, life insurance, disability coverage, and pension programs. The main goal of ERISA is to protect the interests of participants and their beneficiaries through employee benefit plans. Among other things, ERISA requires that sponsors of private employee benefit plans provide those who are participants and beneficiaries with adequate information regarding their individual plans. Also, those individuals and companies who participated must meet certain standards of conduct, derived from the common law of trusts and made applicable to all fiduciaries. The law also contains detailed provisions for reporting to the government and disclosure to participants. Thus, there are civil enforcement provisions aimed at assuring that plan funds are protected and that participants who qualify receive their