Navigating Healthcare in 2021: What Plan Sponsors and Service Providers Need to Know

Matthew Muma is an Attorney-Advisor for the Office of Benefits Tax Counsel at the Office of Tax Policy for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He is admitted to practice in New York State in 2016.

Linda is of counsel in the Vorys Columbus office and a member of the labor and employment group. Her practice is concentrated in the area of employee benefits. Linda works with employers and multiemployer plans on health and welfare benefit plan issues, including employee communications, compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), tax issues, and vendor contracting.

Linda is a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel. She is also a member of the American Bar Association. Linda is a past chair of the Welfare Plan and EEOC Issues Subcommittee of the Tax Section of the ABA. She coordinated the ABA’s comments to the IRS on the employer shared responsibility penalties under Code ?4980H and has participated in ABA projects to provide comments to the IRS on other ACA regulations.

Linda has spoken on several topics, including ACA, HITECH, COBRA, reporting and disclosure and high deductible health plans/health savings accounts.

Linda received her J.D. with honors from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law and her B.B.A. magna cum laude from Kent State University.

Kevin Knopf is a Senior Technician Reviewer in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, TEGE, Health and Welfare branch working on guidance implementing the Affordable Care Act. Prior to joining the IRS, he was an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury since 1987. He joined the Office of Benefits Tax Counsel within the Office of Tax Policy in 1992. Mr. Knopf graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Psychology and a J.D. with distinction; he received Masters of Law in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the Bar in Iowa and the District of Columbia.

Tara Silver-Malyska is a Senior Principal in the Willis Towers Watson Human Capital Practice’s National Legal & Research Group.

Tara is an accomplished attorney with more than 20 years of experience focused on employee benefits, including health and welfare, qualified retirement and executive compensation.

She held positions with four big four accounting firms, and served as Employee Benefits Counsel for a global actuarial and consulting firm. She has also provided advice to a government agency regarding appeals of defined benefit entitlements.

Tara monitors and analyzes employee benefits legislative and regulatory issues, writes and peer reviews technical articles, performs related research, and provides guidance to clients and consultants. Her consulting experience includes plan design, drafting, and qualification, correction program and compliance issues, government filings, reporting and disclosure, tax issues, M&A, QDROs, PBGC, Dodd-Frank, and public and private audit assistance. In addition, Tara has experience with employee benefit internal audits and not-for-profit entities.

Tara is the American Bar Association Group Chair and a member of the Tax Section. She is the Dallas Bar Association, Employee Benefits/Executive Compensation Past Chair. She is a Gulf Coast TE/GE Council Member and SouthWest Benefits Association (SWBA) member; the Past Program Chair for the Northern Virginia and Dallas Chapters of Worldwide Employee Benefit Network (WEB); the Past President D/FW Chapter and Program Co-Chair Dallas Chapter and current board member, and Past Seminar Chair and Board Member Capital Chapter of the International Society Certified Employee Benefits Society (CEBS); and Dallas Benefits Society Past Co-Chair.

She is a frequent speaker and author on employee benefit topics.

Tara received a J.D. from Texas A&M University School of Law, Fort Worth, Texas; an MBA from the University of Dallas, Irving, Texas, Sigma Iota Epsilon; and a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia.

Jason Lacey practices primarily in the areas of income taxation, ERISA, employee benefits, and executive compensation. He assists both taxable and tax-exempt employers with a wide variety of employee benefit and executive compensation issues, including design and administration of welfare benefit plans and qualified and nonqualified pension, retirement savings, and deferred compensation plans. He also represents clients with respect to the tax and business aspects of entity formation, tax-advantaged exchanges and reorganizations, and tax controversies, and has significant practice experience in the areas of estate administration, estate and gift taxation, and the federal tax aspects of municipal finance transactions.

Jason has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America©, the Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers® Rising Star list, and Chambers USA as a leading business attorney in the United States. He was recognized by Best Lawyers® as the 2014, 2017, and 2020 Wichita Employee Benefits (ERISA) “Lawyer of the Year.”