Experience

Sheila’s expertise in this area is based on more than 20 years of practicing law. After graduating from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1992, she spent seven years as a corporate transactional and employee benefits associate, initially with a mid-sized, regional law firm, and later with a large, national firm. During those years, she applied the intricate rules of ERISA, COBRA, FMLA, HIPAA and other federal legislation to a client base that included small and medium-sized companies, as well as Fortune 500 companies. Her responsibilities included designing and drafting group health plans, preparing corresponding summary plan descriptions and administrative forms, and advising plan sponsors of their legal obligations.

Later, Sheila accepted a position as in-house counsel at a national corporation with both a third-party health plan administration component and a preferred provider network component. Working on behalf of health plan service providers added a new perspective to Sheila’s practice and provided greater insight into the administrative and operational aspects of maintaining a health benefit plan.

In recent years, the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has changed the landscape of health care. Sheila has worked with plan sponsors and insurance carriers to ensure their compliance with the numerous additional obligations imposed under the regulations. The entire health care industry is waiting to see what happens next.

740.917.5155​

Health Plan Drafting and Compliance Services

The Law Offices of Sheila Deselich Cohen  offers the following services in connection with employer-sponsored health benefit plans:

The Law Offices of 
Sheila Deselich Cohen



  • Preparing and updating health plan documents, including wrap plans
  • Preparing summaries of benefits and coverage (SBCs), summary plan descriptions (SPDs), summaries of material modifications (SMMs), administrative forms (such as COBRA notices and other election forms), and HIPAA policies and procedures​
  • Reviewing and negotiating plan vendor agreements, including third party administration (TPA) agreements, business associate agreements (BAAs), provider network access (PPO) agreements, and service agreements with independent review organizations (IROs)​
  • Performing plan compliance audits