Benefits - ACA

Long-awaited guidance to governmental agencies on how the Affordable Care Act’s provisions regarding employer shared responsibility interact with the fringe benefit requirements of the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA), Davis-Bacon Act (DBA) and the Davis-Bacon Related Acts (DBRA) (together

Less than one week after hearing oral arguments on seven consolidated cases in which non-profit organizations challenged the opt-out process for religious organizations opposing the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage mandate, the United States Supreme Court took the unusual action of order

The Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) imposes various reporting requirements on insurers, self-insuring employers, and other providers of “minimum essential coverage" and imposes penalties on coverage providers that do not comply. The IRS recently issued Notice 2016-4, which grants extensions of certain i

Last month the IRS issued Notice 2015-87, providing further guidance for applicable large employers on the employer shared responsibility provisions of Code § 4980H. For federal contractors required to provide a certain amount of health and welfare fringe benefits to employees, the Notice brought so

With final ADA and GINA wellness program regulations expected this year from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), 2016 looks to be an important year for regulation of these programs.

For many employers, 2016 will bring new requirements and challenges with respect to compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, their burden in years beyond 2016 may very likely diminish because of recent changes Congress made to the sweeping health care law. While this year the U.S. Sup

On Monday, December 28, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service announced in Notice 2016-4 that employers will have additional time to file annual reports required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("ACA"). The ACA requires certain employers to report minimum essential coverage annuall

In Notice 2016-4, the IRS has extended the due dates for certain 2015 Affordable Care Act information reporting requirements.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the Federal Department of Labor plans to publish on November 18, 2015, new claims procedures for adjudicating disability benefits designed to enhance existing procedures for those benefits under Section 503 of the Employee Retirement Income Sec

For the third time in four years, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s signature health reform law passed in 2010. On November 6, 2015, the Supreme Court issued a writ of certiorari in seven cases addressing the ACA’s birth con

Since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), larger employers have wondered about an auto-enrollment provision that the ACA added to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Under that provision, employers that are subject to the FLSA and which employed more than 200 full-time employees would h

Executive Summary: On October 7, 2015, the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act ("PACE Act") was enacted, and on October 19, 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services released FAQs providing further guidance on the Act's application to states. The PACE Act gives states the option

While Republican efforts to effectively repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through the budget reconciliation process have garnered attention, Congress's recent passage of a bipartisan bill making targeted changes to the law has received less fanfare. On October 7, 2015, President Obama signed into

The Departments of Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services have released Final Regulations providing much-needed guidance with respect to defining a “closely-held corporation.” The Final Regulations, released on July 14, 2015, also provide guidelines for establishing a religious objection for

Effective 2018, Section 4980I of the IRC — the so-called “Cadillac Tax,” which was added to the IRC by the ACA — will impose a 40% nondeductible excise tax on the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored health coverage that exceeds an annually-adjusted statutory dollar limit. For 2018, the d

An “applicable large employer” is subject to a penalty if either (1) the employer fails to offer to its full-time employees (and their dependents) the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage (MEC) under an eligible employer-sponsored plan and any full-time employee obtains a subsidy for

One strategy for minimizing exposure to the employer shared responsibility penalties under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to minimize the number of “full-time employees” – that is, the number of employers working 30 or more hours per week on average.

After months of anticipation and speculation, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the massive health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Surprising many who predicted the demise of the law's individual mandate and, perhaps, the rest of the ACA with it, the Court conc

Employers must adapt to Obergefell v. Hodges. Prior to the Supreme Court’s June 26, 2015 decision, many states did not require employers to recognize and provide benefits for married same-sex couples. Only 36 states and Washington D.C. legalized same-sex marriage. Now, the Supreme Court determined t

In a 6-3 decision issued today, the United States Supreme Court once again upheld President Obama’s signature legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, keeping the employer mandate in effect for all states — even those without their own health insurance exchange.