When it comes to mergers and acquisitions involving at least one applicable large employer (ALE), the substantive rules governing employer shared responsibility (under Internal Revenue Code § 4980H) and the corresponding...more
9/1/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Asset Purchaser ,
COBRA ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Final Rules ,
Health Insurance ,
IRS ,
Large Employer ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
Social Security Taxes ,
Stock Deals ,
Successors ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Wages
As we reported last week, the IRS recently issued draft 2015 Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. These instructions are of interest to applicable large employers who must report their compliance with the Affordable Care...more
8/19/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Mandates ,
Form 1094 ,
Form 1095 ,
Health Savings Accounts ,
HRA ,
IRS ,
Large Employer ,
Minimum Essential Coverage ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Section 6055 ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
Supplemental Insurance
The IRS recently issued draft 2015 Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (“2015 Instructions”). These are the forms that employers with 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalent employees) in the...more
8/11/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
COBRA ,
Employer Mandates ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Form 1095 ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Large Employer ,
Minimum Essential Coverage ,
Multiemployer Plan ,
PHI ,
Premiums ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Extensions ,
Tax Penalties ,
Trade Preferences Extension Act (TPEA) ,
Waivers
Alden Bianchi, Chair of Mintz Levin’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice, will provide a weekly installment on the complex reporting obligations outlined by the Affordable Care Act for health insurance...more
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposes information reporting rules on providers of minimum essential coverage, e.g., insurance carriers and self-funded plans, and on applicable large employers, i.e., those employers that are...more
7/27/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Good Faith ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare ,
IRS ,
Minimum Essential Coverage ,
New Legislation ,
Penalties ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Section 6722 ,
Self-Funded Health Plans ,
Trade Preferences Extension Act (TPEA)
Alden Bianchi, Chair of the our Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice, will provide a weekly installment on the complex reporting obligations outlined by the Affordable Care Act for health insurance carriers and...more
7/20/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Compliance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Exceptions ,
Good Faith ,
Health Insurance ,
Individual Mandate ,
IRS ,
Minimum Essential Coverage ,
Penalties ,
Popular ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Self-Funded Health Plans
Reports in the popular media portrayed King v. Burwell as a case involving premium tax subsidies used to purchase health insurance from public exchanges or marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). According to an...more
7/7/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Employer Mandates ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Insurance Exchanges ,
IRS ,
King v Burwell ,
SCOTUS ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
State Health Insurance Exchanges ,
Subsidies ,
Tax Credits
Regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility rules including the substantive “pay-or-play” rules and the accompanying reporting rules were adopted in February. Regulations...more
As applicable large employers grapple with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility (pay-or-play) rules, two questions arise with notable frequency...more
12/8/2014
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Cafeteria Plans ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Mandates ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
IRS ,
Non-Discrimination Rules ,
Pay or Play ,
Public Health Service Act ,
Shared Responsibility Rule
Last year, the Department of Labor and the Treasury Department/IRS (Departments) issued guidance on the application of certain of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance market reforms to health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs),...more
Under the Affordable Care Act’s rules governing employer shared responsibility—which are codified in Internal Revenue Code § 4980H—where an applicable large employer makes an offer of group health plan coverage that is both...more
For purposes of complying with the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules (which are codified in Internal Revenue Code § 4980H), employers must identify their “full-time employees.” Final regulations...more
The Treasury Department and the IRS had a busy week issuing no less than five Affordable Care Act guidance items, consisting of...more
Whether an employer makes the requisite offer of group health plan coverage is critical to the application of the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility rules as reflected in final implementing regulations...more
With two seemingly simple and straightforward definitions in the final regulations implementing the Affordable Care Act’s pay-or-play rules—i.e., definitions of “employer” and “employee”— the Treasury Department and IRS have...more
The Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility, or “pay-or-play,” rules require “applicable large employers” (generally employers with 50 or more full-time and full-time equivalent employees) to offer group health...more
While employers sometimes view the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility (or “pay-or-play”) rules in isolation, they don’t operate that way. Instead, they exist side-by-side with other provisions of the Act. In...more
On July 22, 2014, two federal appellate courts issued conflicting decisions, within hours of each other, regarding the IRS final rule published on May 23, 2012 (the “IRS Rule”), intended to implement the exchange-related tax...more
7/28/2014
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Employer Mandates ,
Halbig v Burwell ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Insurance Exchanges ,
Healthcare Reform ,
IRS ,
King v Burwell ,
Subsidies ,
Tax Credits
On July 22, 2014, two federal appellate courts issued conflicting decisions, within hours of each other, regarding the IRS final rule published on May 23, 2012 (the “IRS Rule”), intended to implement the exchange-related tax...more
The Employer Shared Responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) generally require “applicable large employers” (i.e., employers who employed at least 50 full-time and full-time equivalent employees on...more
7/16/2014
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Contractors ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Contributions ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Contractors ,
IRS ,
Service Contract Act ,
Subcontractors ,
U.S. Treasury ,
Wage and Hour
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
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
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
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
On March 5th, 2014, the Treasury Department and the IRS issued two final reporting rules of critical importance to employers...more