Benefits - ACA

Healthcare consumers continue to pay more and more toward their out-of-pocket healthcare costs, driving a shift away from volume-based compensation models toward outcomes-based payment arrangements. By all accounts, meaningful consumerism in the healthcare market is rapidly emerging.

Employers who provide health benefits to their union workforce through a multiemployer group health plan must satisfy all the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting requirements regarding their union employees.

On May 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new proposed regulations interpreting Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which contains the ACA’s anti-discrimination provisions.1 These proposed regulations substantially change Obama-era HHS regulations inte

As employers and their third-party administrators begin to wrap-up their Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) reporting for the 2018 tax year, we’ve started to receive questions about what comes next. As we discussed here, with the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (t

On December 14, 2018, a Texas federal court declared the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional. Despite this broad holding (and clickbait headlines), employers should not expect to see any significant changes to the ACA in the near future.

On December 14, 2018, a federal district judge sitting in Texas ruled that, without the so-called “individual mandate” which requires individual taxpayers to maintain minimum essential coverage, the rest of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as amended (widely known as the “ACA”) is “INV

This is the seventh article in our series covering various tax and employee benefits-related changes contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by the President on December 22, 2017.

The IRS has recently begun enforcing the “employer shared responsibility” (ESR) provisions of the Affordable Care Act (the "Act"), which require employers having 50 or more full-time employees (or full-time equivalent employees) to offer health insurance coverage to eligible employees and their depe

On more than one occasion since passing the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), the IRS has given some type of early holiday “gift” to alleviate pending compliance concerns for employers. One of the most significant of these occurred in late December 2015, when the IRS extended the mandated filing periods

Under the ACA, employers must provide plans that cover birth control and other preventative health services with no out-of-pocket costs. Certain religious employers with religious objections to providing contraceptive services have been exempt from the requirement. (Accommodations have also been pro

Premiums for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace coverage continue to sky rocket, with the average cost of a benchmark plan in the individual market place rising 20% this year. There is very different news for employer-sponsored plans. According to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2016 a

Last month began with significant momentum but long odds that Senate Republicans would pass legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In the early hours of July 28, GOP efforts came to a screeching halt as a last-ditch "skinny" repeal bill failed, all but ending the seven-ye

Five months into President Trump's term, his administration's workplace policy is beginning to take shape. From notable developments at the Department of Labor (DOL), to long-awaited nominations to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the administration's departure from the labor and employmen

On June 22, 2017, Senate Republicans released a draft of their legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). After the House narrowly passed its version of ACA overhaul legislation, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), on May 4, 2017, attention shifted to the Senate to craft its

Seven years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on May 4, 2017, to dismantle the sweeping law and replace key provisions with a dramatically different vision of health care reform. After modifications were made to try to secure the votes of both G

Among the many changes recently proposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), one that has not yet occurred is a repeal of the requirement that certain employers provide break time for nursing mothers.

Executive Summary: The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that would effectively eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) employer mandate, open the door for simplified employer coverage reporting, provide greater flexibility for HSAs and FSAs, and delay implementation of the “C

Disclosing protected health information (PHI) to a business associate without a compliant business associate agreement (BAA) is an improper disclosure under the HIPAA privacy and security regulations. According to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), an error like that can cost a small healthcare

On April 7, 2017, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) published a report on the “Assessment of Efforts to Implement the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision.” This report1 provides clues to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enforcement initiatives with regard to the employe

Republicans hoped to mark the seventh anniversary of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) enactment by passing legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to dismantle it. Instead, facing the failure of a bill on the House floor despite President Trump's lobbying push, GOP leadership pulled the legi