The hero has disappeared in a cloud of suspicion and is presumed dead, so much so that supposed friends are found to be celebrating his passing. This is just as it should be at the end of Act II. Remember when Republicans...more
During the week reviewed, no new bill was introduced which, if passed, would repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act, and little else happened at the three main ACA enforcement agencies – DOL, HHS and IRS.
Department...more
As previously reported, § 2001 of the 2017 budget bill required all ACA repeal/replace bills to be filed and reported from assigned committees by Friday, January 27, 2017. That didn’t happen. Since our last posting, the...more
In Central United Life Ins. Co. v. Burwell, D.C. Cir. No. 15-5310 (July 1, 2016), a D.C. Circuit panel affirmed, 3-0, a trial court injunction barring enforcement of the 2014 HHS regulation permitting individual...more
A U.S. District Judge has ruled that HHS unlawfully has spent billions of dollars to reimburse insurers for cost-sharing reductions granted to individuals who bought health insurance through an ACA Exchange such as...more
This is the annual hodge-podge of changes to the risk adjustment, reinsurance, and risk corridors programs, cost sharing parameters, cost-sharing reductions, and Healthcare.gov user fees, usually filling hundreds of Federal...more
In June 2013, DOL, HHS and IRS explained that they view employer-sponsored wellness programs as narrow exceptions to the ACA’s health status discrimination prohibition. Early this year, the EEOC slathered-on its own rules,...more
11/4/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
GINA ,
Inducement ,
IRS ,
Spouses ,
Wellness Programs
On September 18, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a set of “Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace’s (FFM) 2016 Employer Notice Program.”...more
9/22/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Appeals ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Certifications ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Employer Mandates ,
Federal Health Insurance Exchanges ,
Guidance Update ,
Health Insurance ,
Health Insurance Exchanges ,
Healthcare.gov ,
IRS ,
Public Health Insurance Marketplace ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Subsidies ,
Tax Credits ,
Tax Liability
...So, why did HHS need over five years to propose the set of rules published September 8? Here are a few highlights. For brevity’s sake, we omit foreign language service requirements, disability accommodation, compliance...more
9/11/2015
/ Affordable Care Act ,
Age Discrimination ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Association Discrimination ,
Comment Period ,
Covered Entities ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Employer Group Health Plans ,
Essential Health Benefits ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Health Insurance ,
Pregnancy ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Public Health Insurance Marketplace ,
Race Discrimination ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
State Health Insurance Exchanges ,
Title IX ,
Title VI ,
Transgender
Here’s the coming dilemma: let IRS assess employer mandate taxes based on errant Healthcare.gov subsidy certifications or appeal those errors to prevent those assessments. “Where’s the dilemma?” you say. Here: once you...more
Absent applicable transitional relief, most of which vanishes after 2015, an ACA Applicable Large Employer that fails to offer Minimum Essential Coverage to at least 70% of its 2015 full-time employees and their dependents...more