To call the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. much-anticipated or highly controversial is an understatement. And, to be clear, any time the Supreme Court weighs in on bed-rock...more
The Departments of the Treasury/IRS, Labor and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) recently issued a final regulation under the 90-day waiting period limitation, which is included among the Affordable Care Act’s...more
6/30/2014
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
PHSA ,
U.S. Treasury
Recent developments under the Affordable Care Act and COBRA, and existing rules governing mid-year election changes under cafeteria plans, have combined to make it challenging for certain terminating employees and those...more
It was just over a year ago that the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “Employers Eye Bare-Bones Health Plans Under New Law,” which highlighted a compliance strategy to minimize employer exposure for...more
The IRS recently issued two Q&As on the subject of employer payment plans, the purpose of which was to again underscore that arrangements purporting to allow an employer to reimburse employees on a pre-tax basis for premiums...more
In last week’s post, we examined the appropriateness of capping the annual hours of new “variable hour employees” as a way to limit exposure under the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules. (These rules...more
Whenever Congress draws a line in the sand—such as with exposure for assessable payments under the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibly rules—entities subject to regulation (here, applicable large employers) will...more
Whether a group health plan provides minimum value is central to the application of the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules. The particulars of the role of minimum value in determining assessable...more
Commencing with plan and policy years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, the Affordable Care Act amends the Public Health Service Act (“PHS Act”) to make three important changes to the rules governing health insurance...more
With so much attention focused on the particulars of the employer shared responsibility and, to a slightly lesser extent, reporting rules, it’s easy to lose sight of other important changes—including final regulations issued...more
Particularly with the issuance of final regulations under the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules, employers have been concerned—justifiably—with the pay-or-play penalties. ...more
For “applicable large employers” (i.e., generally, those employers who employed an average of at least 50 full-time employees on business days during the preceding calendar year), determining which employees are “full-time”...more
In a rare display of bipartisanship, Congress voted to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s separate cap on deductibles that applies to individual and small group insurance products. (These limits never applied to large...more
Distinguishing employees who are full-time from those who are not takes up a good deal of real estate in final regulations published in the Federal Register on February 12 implementing the Act’s employer shared responsibility...more
Final regulations under Code § 4980H published in the Federal Register on February 12 include a new term—“limited non-assessment period”—which describes periods for which an applicable large employer (i.e., an employer with...more
The last few weeks have produced a regulatory frenzy under various provisions of the Affordable Care Act affecting employers...more
On March 5th, 2014, the Treasury Department and the IRS issued two final reporting rules of critical importance to employers...more
The Affordable Care Act (the “Act”) generally prevents an otherwise eligible employee (or dependent) from having to wait more than 90 days before coverage becomes effective under a group health plan. The regulation of waiting...more
So much attention has been paid to the issuance of the final employer shared responsibility regulations that some might have missed the news that final regulations were recently issued under another of the Affordable Care...more
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service recently issued final regulations implementing the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act. For “applicable large employers” — i.e., those with...more
In last week’s post on the topic of the recently issued final regulations under the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility (a/k/a “pay-or-play”) rules, we suggested that the final regulations broke little new...more
The Treasury Department and the IRS last week issued long-awaited final rules implementing the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility (a/k/a “pay-or-play”) rules. Originally slated to take effect beginning...more
A January 18th New York Times article (Rules for Equal Coverage by Employers Remain Elusive Under Health Law) reported on the progress, or lack thereof, of the adoption of group health plan non-discrimination regulations...more
Breaking with long standing tradition—i.e., issuing important rules on a Friday before a holiday weekend, or (failing that) any Friday (hence the reference to Week 45½ in this post)—the Treasury Department and the IRS today...more
The Affordable Care Act establishes three new, high-level, reporting requirements:
Code § 6051(a)(14) -
Employers must report the cost of coverage under an employer-sponsored group health plan on an employee’s...more