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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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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Health Care Reform Finally Reaches The Supreme Court – Day One!
The health care reform legislation finally is having its day (well, actually several days) in court — in the United States Supreme Court no less. Other than for those fixated on the upcoming Final Four (unfortunately, the author’s team already has been eliminated and thus I am free to write this) or on the triumphant …
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Summary of Benefits & Coverage Q&A’s Posted
We now have Q&A’s on the health care Summary of Benefits and Coverage. This guidance is incredibly late and is not binding, but it may be of assistance to everyone rushing to get this documentation put together and distributed.
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The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program — Go Forth and Spend
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) contained a provision that established the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (“ERRP”), the goal of which was to encourage plan sponsors to retain health care coverage for retirees through at least 2013. The ERRP was designed to provide reimbursement to eligible sponsors of employment-based plans for a portion …
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Health Care Plan Summary of Benefits and Coverage Distribution Deadline Quickly Approaching for Employers
Employers who maintain health plans may recall from our prior blogs (see “Health Care Plan Annual Enrollment Triage: The Summary of Benefits and Coverage Standards Have Not Been Issued Yet and May Just Have to Wait” and “Health Care Plan Summary of Benefits and Coverage: Still No Final Model, But Substantial Excise Taxes are Looming Anyway”) that they would soon need to address the new Summary of Benefits and Coverage (“SBC”), although urgent action would need to wait until the issuance of final guidance. Well, the wait is over.
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Health care compliance Form 8928 excise tax self-reporting requirements: Have you done your due diligence for 2011 and determined the due date for your return, if required?
While conducting a health care reform webinar recently, we received questions that suggested the need to remind employers sponsoring group health care plans about their self-reporting obligations, and significant potential exposure to excise taxes.
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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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