It seems to me I saw a news item this summer and now wish I could find it. As I recall it (perhaps wrongly), the article said there was some disagreement at IRS or DOL over whether mere payment of premiums through 125 for an individual health policy would be a sufficient employer connection to make the policy subject to HIPAA portablility and nondiscrimination. This was not specifically addressed in the HHS Insurance Bulletin 00-06, which is attached.

Has anyone seen anything on this lately?

OOPS, I see my attempted attachment didn't work. I'll try again, but if it doesn't work, my reference was to CMS Insurance bulletin 00-06.
The address is
http://cms.hhs.gov/hipaa/hipaa1/content/Hip00-6.pdf.

It just explains how an individual policy can be included within the scope of HIPAA's definition of Group Health Plan. But, as I say, it is silent on whether mere 125 Premium payment fully funded through salary reduction, is automatically a GHP.
So.... has anyone seen an article or heard rumblings on that ?

Tom:

I'm not sure that this is helpful (or even responsive), but here are some notes that I have stored on my computer that involve cafeteria plans and HIPAA:

According to the final regulations issued March 23, 2000, "if, in accordance with the special enrollment rights provided by HIPAA, an employee, spouse, or new dependent is entitled to enroll in a group health plan, a cafeteria plan may permit the employee to elect to enroll pre-existing dependents in the underlying group health plan."