On October 13th, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing various federal agencies to consider how to achieve three administration health reform objectives: (1) expand access to Association Health Plans (AHPs); (2)...more
10/25/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Association Health Plans ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Executive Orders ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Medical Reimbursement ,
MEWAs ,
New Guidance ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Trump Administration
In recent weeks, the Trump Administration has been considering allowing health insurance to be purchased across state lines and expanding access to “Association Health Plans” (AHPs) that could take economic advantage of...more
At this writing, the prospects for success of the latest Republican effort to replace the Affordable Care Act appear bleak — but the Graham-Cassidy bill on which the GOP has pinned its last-ditch hopes highlights a major...more
9/25/2017
/ 1332 Waiver ,
Actuaries ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Block Grants ,
Cost-Sharing ,
EHB ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Insurance Risk Pool ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
Premiums ,
Public Health Insurance Marketplace ,
Repeal
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recently gave a candid assessment of the chances of getting an Affordable Care Act (ACA) replacement bill through the Senate, saying “I don’t know how we get to 50 (votes) at the...more
6/8/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
American Health Care Act (AHCA) ,
Congressional Budget Office ,
Employer Mandates ,
Essential Health Benefits ,
Health Insurance ,
High Risk Pools ,
Individual Mandate ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Medicaid ,
Medicaid Expansion ,
Medicare ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Tax Credits ,
Trump Administration
In an effort to make up for a funding shortfall in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Medicaid program, state policymakers have proposed solutions that include a “play-or-pay” option under which employers who fail to offer...more
5/30/2017
/ Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ,
Deficit Reduction ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Contributions ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Health Insurance ,
Healthcare Reform ,
Medicaid ,
Pay or Play ,
Preemption ,
State Legislatures
The stunning failure of the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA) (which we previously reported on here) has political and policy implications that we cannot forecast. Nor it is it clear to...more
3/28/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Health Insurance ,
Large Employer ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Medicaid ,
Medicaid Expansion ,
Preemption ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Repeal ,
State Health Plans ,
Trump Administration
On March 6, 2017, after years of promising, GOP lawmakers in the House of Representatives introduced the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA), the first concrete legislative proposal detailing the initial provisions designed to...more
3/22/2017
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Cadillac Tax ,
Congressional Budget Act of 1974 ,
Dependent Coverage ,
Employer Mandates ,
Flexible Spending Accounts ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Savings Accounts ,
Individual Mandate ,
Medicaid Expansion ,
Medical Device Tax ,
Medicare Part D ,
Minimum Essential Coverage ,
Over-the-Counter Sales ,
Premium Subsidies ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Repeal ,
Small Business ,
Tax Credits
A recent report from the nation’s top actuaries takes a sobering look at the challenges policy makers face in creating a viable individual (i.e., non-group) health insurance market—a critical component of any plan to replace...more
The recent Republican election victories appear to ensure that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) days are numbered. But with nearly a fifth of the U.S. economy, and the health care coverage for some tens of millions of U.S....more
12/29/2016
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Health Savings Accounts ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Reform ,
HSA ,
Medical Stop-Loss Rules ,
Medicare ,
MEWAs ,
Wellness Programs
The Trump campaign promised to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act. On the campaign trail, candidate Trump was particularly critical of the ACA’s individual mandate, the subsidization of premium charges to older...more
In Q&A format, recently issued Notice 2015-87 addresses a number of pressing issues that have arisen under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including that law’s employer shared responsibility rules, information reporting...more
The Affordable Care Act’s reporting rules—which are set out in Internal Revenue Code §§ 6055 and 6056—solicit the information needed by the Internal Revenue Service to enforce the individual and employer shared responsibility...more
9/15/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Mandates ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
IRS ,
Large Employer ,
Look-Back Measurement Period ,
Minimum Essential Coverage ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
Subsidies
In this volume, we have collected the 52 weekly blog posts that comprise the series entitled, The Affordable Care Act—Countdown to Compliance for Employers. The series appeared in the Mintz Levin Employment Matters Blog...more
2/25/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Cafeteria Plans ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Full-Time Employees ,
Health Insurance ,
Honeywell International ,
HSA ,
Minimum Value Plans ,
Pay or Play ,
Self-Insured Health Plans ,
Shared Responsibility Rule ,
Wellness Programs
The Affordable Care Act requires applicable large employers to make broad-based offers of group health insurance coverage to substantially all their full-time employees or face potential tax penalties. (The term “applicable...more
Many applicable large employers—i.e., employers that are subject to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility rules—have a pretty good sense of what these rules are, how they work, and what they plan to...more