Soaring health plan costs, No Surprises Act, transparency, and other emerging regulatory, litigation, and enforcement responsibilities and risks; changes in the health care, vendor, and reinsurance marketplace and the business environment; and other developments make health plan sponsorship and administration risky business for health plan sponsors and fiduciaries. Savvy health plan sponsors and fiduciaries help defend themselves and their health plan against these cost and liabilities by conducting a year-end health plan wellness checkup.
Catch up on the latest health plan developments impacting your health plan costs and liabilities by participating in the complementary virtual workshop, “Road Ready Your Health Plan For 2027 With A Health Plan Wellness Checkup” that American College of Employee Benefit Counsel Fellow and Texas Board of Legal Specialization Board Certified Labor and Employment Attorney Cynthia Marcotte Stamer Esq. and longtime health plan broker and consultant William W Patterson are scheduled to co-conduct for the Fort Worth HR Compensation and Employee Benefits PEG on November 4, 2026, from Noon to 1:00 p.m. Central Time.
What You Will Learn
During the workshop, you will learn key information about:
- No Surprises Act, transparency, and other key regulatory, litigation, and enforcement developments impacting health plan costs and risks and actions employers and fiduciaries should take to manage resulting responsibilities, costs and liabilities.
- Options for mitigating the effects of health care, vendor, and reinsurance marketplace changes driving your health plan costs and liabilities.
- Compliance and other potential risks arising from reference based pricing, narrow network, PBM, and other popular health plan design strategies.
- Tips for evaluating and mitigating your health plan’s exposure to costs and liabilities from mishandled participant, out-of-network, in-network and stop-loss claims.
- Fiduciary and vendor credentialing, appointment, bonding, compensation, and other compliance and governance practices to maintain compliance and mitigate risks.
- Health plan contracting, documentation, and communication strategies to minimize risks and costs.
- No Surprises Act, ACA, ERISA, MHPAEA, prompt pay, and other claims and appeals compliance and risk management strategies.
- Key plan design and documentation, vendor selection and contracting, NSA and other out-of-network claims handling, compliance audit, plan year-end stop loss and other reinsurance, and other best practices for managing plan, plan sponsor, and plan fiduciary out-of-network claims costs and liabilities.
- Best practice options for managing fiduciary and employer liability, and mitigating other plan and employer losses if your plan or its vendor mishandled NSA or other out-of-network claims.
- Coordinating workforce and health plan eligibility administration and risk management to manage risks.
- Other best practices for winding up your 2026 health plan year and setting up your 2027 health plan for success.
The Presenters
Cynthia Marcotte Stamer is an American College of Employee Benefits Counsel Fellow and Texas Board of Legal Specialization board-certified labor and employment attorney, nationally recognized as a “Top Rated Lawyer,” “LEGAL LEADER™,” and “Best Lawyer” in Employee Benefits, Labor & Employment, and Health Care law for her more than 30 years of work, advocacy, scholarship and leadership on employer-sponsored health and other employee benefits, workforce, health care, insurance, and HRIS/IT design, compliance, operations, legislative and regulatory reform, and other related concerns.
Nationally celebrated for her decades of leading-edge health benefit work and advocacy, Ms. Staner advises employers, health and other employee benefit plans, their fiduciaries, insurers, third-party administrators, managed care organizations, health/HR technology, their investors and vendors, federal and state legislators and regulators, and others about health and other plan design, vendor selection and contracting, claims and appeals administration, fiduciary responsibility and governance, regulatory compliance and enforcement, participant education and management, and other compliance, risk management and operations concerns.
A former lead advisor to the Government of Bolivia on its Social Security Pension Privatization, Cindy also regularly provides input to federal and state legislators and regulators on health, severance, pension and other employee benefits, compensation, workforce, disability, health care, and other legislation, regulation, and enforcement. Cindy also is a popular speaker and prolific author on emerging health and other benefits, compensation, employment, and other workforce, health care, insurance, and other compliance, risk management and operations strategies and concerns, with a lengthy resume of leadership and other service in the American Bar Association, the Society of Human Resources Management, the Texas Association of Business, and many other professional, civic, and other organizations.
A popular lecturer and prolific author on health benefit and other employee benefits, compensation and workforce concerns, Ms. Stamer is the founder and managing member of her law firm, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer P.C., and its education and advocacy affiliate, Solutions Law Press, a HRCI-accredited reeducation provider. Before founding her firm, Ms. Stamer practiced as a partner or shareholder in the employee benefits, labor and employment, and health care practices of several large national and multinational law firms. Connect with Cindy on LinkedIn to learn more.
William W Patterson is a long-standing healthcare and employee benefits consultant and broker with more than three decades of assisting employers with fully insured and self-funded plan strategies,
“Bill” provides knowledge, experience, and solutions to plan sponsors searching for the most effective traditional and nontraditional strategies to provide healthcare plans to their employee base.
Bill has previously served as a membership chairman of Mid Cities HR Association for 5 years, and a leadership position with the Texas State Council.
Connect with Bill on LinkedIn at https ://www.linkedin.com/in/william-patterson-11a8998/ to learn more.
When and How To Participate
The Fort Worth HR Compensation and Benefits PEG will host the complimentary virtual briefing as part of the monthly meetings it hosts for compensation and benefits and other human resources professionals. Membership in Fort Worth HR or its Compensation and Benefits PEG is not required to participate. Use the following details to join the meeting:
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
12:00 PM CST- 12:10 PM CST: Networking
12:11 -1 PM CST: Presentation
Where: Zoom
Meeting ID: 896 5958 5581
Passcode: 835760
Founded in 1966, Fort Worth HR is a nonprofit, SHRM-affiliated organization serving HR professionals, veterans, and students in the Fort Worth metroplex. With more than 600 human resources professional members from 480 countries, Fort Worth HR hosts monthly luncheons, two annual conferences, workshops, networking events, online forums and other activities. To learn more about Fort Worth HR and involvement opportunities, see fwhr.org.
About Solutions Law Press™
Solutions Law Press™ provides health care, insurance, human resources and employee benefit, data and technology, regulatory and operational performance, and other business risk management, legal compliance, management effectiveness and other coaching, tools and other resources, training and education. These include extensive resources on leadership, governance, human resources, employee benefits, data security and privacy, insurance, health care and other key compliance, risk management, internal controls and operational concerns. If you find this of interest, you also be interested reviewing some of our other Solutions Law Press™ resources or training.
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NOTICE: These statements and materials are for general information and purposes only. They do not establish an attorney-client relationship, are not legal advice or an offer or commitment to provide legal advice, and do not serve as a substitute for legal advice. Readers are urged to engage competent legal counsel for consultation and representation considering the specific facts and circumstances presented in their unique circumstances at the particular time. No comment or statement in this publication is to be construed as legal advice or admission. Solutions Law Press and its authors reserve the right to qualify or retract any of these statements at any time. Likewise, the content is not tailored to any particular situation and does not necessarily address all relevant issues. Because the law constantly and often evolves, subsequent developments that could change the currency and completeness of this discussion are likely. Solutions Law Press and its authors disclaim and have no responsibility to provide any update or otherwise notify anyone of any fact or law-specific nuance, change, limitation, or other condition that might affect the suitability of reliance upon these materials or information otherwise conveyed in connection with this program. Readers may not rely upon, are solely responsible for, and assume the risk and all liabilities resulting from their use of this publication.
Circular 230 Compliance. The following disclaimer is included to ensure that we comply with U.S. Treasury Department Regulations. Any statements contained herein are not intended or written by the writer to be used, and nothing contained herein can be used by you or any other person, for the purpose of (1) avoiding penalties that may be imposed under federal tax law, or (2) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any tax-related transaction or matter addressed herein.
©2026 Cynthia Marcotte Stamer. Non-exclusive right to republish granted to Solutions Law Press.™ For information about licensing for republication, please contact the author directly. All other rights reserved.
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