Thompson Hine LLP

Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation/Privacy & Cybersecurity

Kim is a partner in the Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation practice group with over twenty years of experience helping employers understand and apply requirements applicable to health and welfare employee benefit plans. She advises large national and global employers, as well as smaller employers and service providers. These clients rely on Kim to provide proactive, practical, and cost-effective advice on everything from implementing new legal requirements to addressing day-to-day compliance issues.

By collaborating with colleagues through organizations such as the American Bar Association and the American Benefits Council, Kim stays current on the various issues impacting welfare plans and the risks and options for addressing those issues.

Kim provides advice on all aspects of health and welfare plan compliance, including:

• Applying new legal requirements, including the No Surprises Act, prescription drug reporting, gag clause prohibition compliance attestations, and mental health parity NQTL analyses;
• Applying more established legal requirements, including with respect to the Affordable Care Act, COBRA, HIPAA, HSAs, cafeteria plan rules, wellness program rules, nondiscrimination requirements, and taxation of benefits;
• Evaluating responses to legal and coverage trends, such as health plan fee lawsuits, state and federal regulation of pharmacy benefit managers, promotion of lifestyle accounts, expansion of travel benefits, and coverage of wilderness therapy;
• Advising on welfare plan fiduciary processes and documentation;
• Analyzing proposed plan designs and associated risks;
• Reviewing and negotiating service provider agreements;
• Helping health plans update HIPAA privacy and security compliance and providing HIPAA training to employees;
• Drafting and reviewing plan documentation and participant communications; and
• Consulting on benefit claims and appeals and provider demands for payment.

University of Cincinnati College of Law, J.D., 2001, Order of the Coif Miami University, B.A., 1998, summa cum laude