Health Care Reform Update: Planning Now for Significant 2014 Deadlines
The Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) makes sweeping changes to the current health insurance landscape. Though some of these changes are already in force, the most significant provisions of the ACA become effective on January 1, 2014. This includes the “pay or play mandate,” the individual coverage mandate, and certain significant taxes and fees that are imposed on employers.
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Temporary Relief From ACA Provisions Extended To Insured Expatriate Plans
The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) recently issued guidance in the form of a Frequently Asked Question (“FAQ”) that relates to the applicability of the market reform provisions of the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”) to certain expatriate health care plans.
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Employer Excise Taxes Under Health Care Reform – Contraceptive Coverage Mandate, New Proposed Regulations and HHS Due Process and Privacy Report Deadline Was 1/1/13
As you may have heard, the U.S Supreme Court denied Hobby Lobby an injunction against the PPACA contraceptive coverage mandate. Employers who maintain health care plans are required to pay excise taxes for failure to comply with a particular aspect of the law, regardless of whether coverage is affordable.
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Health Care Reform Survives Supreme Court Scrutiny – But Not Entirely Intact
Health care reform just got a clean bill of health from the United States Supreme Court. The Court today ruled on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), and generally upheld the legislation in a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts.
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Supreme Court Wraps Up Oral Arguments On Health Care Reform – Day Three
On Wednesday, March 28, the Supreme Court wrapped up three days of oral arguments related to the constitutionality of certain portions of the health care reform legislation.
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Supreme Court Gets Into The Act On Health Care Reform
The table now is set for the last chapter in our long (and, to many, excruciating) debate over the constitutionality of the health care reform legislation enacted in 2010. At a conference last Thursday, November 10, the members of the United States Supreme Court voted to consider an appeal of one of the lower court decisions dealing with the constitutionality of the landmark legislation.
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Health Care Shared Responsibility’s Missing Link – Reconciliation With The Employer
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) shared responsibility provisions require speculation about whether health care coverage will be affordable for an individual. Whether affordable coverage was available, whether an individual was eligible for a premium credit, and whether an employer was subject to penalties, cannot be determined until after the individual files a personal tax return.
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Is The Judicial Ping Pong Game Over Health Care Reform Coming To A Merciful Close?
The Obama administration was faced with a deadline to ask for an en banc review by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of a decision that declared the health care reform legislation’s individual mandate unconstitutional. Under applicable court rules, such a request had to be filed by Monday, September 26. A decision to seek such a review would have caused further delay, and very likely would have delayed the timing of a decision on the legislation by the Supreme Court until after the 2012 national elections.
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Health Care Plan Annual Enrollment Triage: The Summary of Benefits and Coverage Standards Have Not Been Issued Yet and May Just Have to Wait
M*A*S*H* taught us how to do triage, and MacGyver taught us to creatively think our way out of an impossible situation. Both are skills that may come in handy for the many employers who maintain calendar year health plans and who were in the process of preparing for annual enrollment when the Summary of Benefit …
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PPACA Standards For Coverage Of Preventive Care Extended To Contraceptives
On Monday, August 1, 2011, the Obama administration announced new guidelines that require health care plans to cover certain women’s preventive services, including birth control and voluntary sterilization. The action taken by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (the “HHS”) adopts recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine, which recently issued a …
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