On Friday, May 13, 2016, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights finalized regulations that provide explicit protections from discrimination on the basis of gender identity in health care and insurance under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.
Last week, a federal district court ruled that US Congress did not appropriate funds for the cost-sharing reduction subsidies in the Affordable Care Act. The court stayed the decision pending an anticipated appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Recent guidance clarifies important issues under the Affordable Care Act, Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, and Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act.
As part of the insurance market reforms enacted under the ACA, large employers are required to maintain a certain level of health insurance for their common law employees (and only their common law employees) or pay a penalty — the so-called pay or play or employer shared responsibility rules. The rules for determining which workers should, or even can, be offered coverage are quite daunting. This article provides a road map for determining which workers must have an offer of health insurance coverage from the employer to avoid triggering penalties under the employer shared responsibility requirements.
On October 23, 2015, the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Treasury issued frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the implementation of preventive care and wellness provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and mental health parity disclosure, adding to the existing list of 28 previous editions of FAQs on the implementation of ACA.
The recently enacted Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 includes provisions that will extend the deadlines for filing future Form 5500 and Form 990 series information returns. In addition, the legislation modifies rules relating to the ability of veterans to participate in health savings accounts (HSAs), allows employers to disregard employees receiving certain veterans benefits when determining whether they are subject to the shared responsibility requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and further extends the ability of employers to use excess pension assets to pay for retiree health and group-term life insurance.
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) fee was established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to advance comparative clinical effectiveness research. The PCORI fee is assessed on issuers of health insurance policies and sponsors of self-insured health plans. The fees are calculated using the average number of lives covered under the policy or plan, and the applicable dollar amount for that policy or plan year.
Effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, an excise tax of 40 percent will be imposed on the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage that exceeds an annual limit. This tax is informally known as the “Cadillac Tax” and will impose a penalty on employers, health insurers and “persons who administer plan benefits” with regard to high-cost health care coverage.
Susan M. Nash wrote this bylined article about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) long-awaited guidance on when it will enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) against employers who sponsor certain types of employee wellness programs. “Although still in proposed form, the proposed rule provides insight into EEOC’s approach toward regulating employer wellness programs,” Ms. Nash wrote.
The U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury (collectively, the Departments) have issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) clarifying the limitations on cost sharing under the Affordable Care Act.
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