Podcast: Health Reimbursement Arrangements
K&L Gates Triage: An Insider’s Perspective on the Health Care Debate in Washington, DC
How Does King v. Burwell Decision Affect the Affordable Care Act?
The Affordable Care Act: The Structure of Health Plans – Interview with Alden Bianchi, Member, Mintz Levin
Does the Affordable Care Act really make health insurance more affordable?
With open enrollment in full swing for many employers, now is a good time to review employee benefit communications. Plan sponsors of health plans are generally responsible for properly administering all of the health plan...more
An interesting development transpired Tuesday, February 21, 2017 in a case pending in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia that challenges subsidy payments from the Federal Treasury to support Obamacare. The...more
The Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA), part of the 21st Century Cures Act signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 13, 2016, makes available to small employers a new option to...more
On July 21, 2016, the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (the “DOJ”) announced that it, along with several state attorneys general, would sue to block two multi-billion dollar health insurance mergers between Aetna and...more
In a marked departure from the overwhelming success employers experienced before the Supreme Court in recent years, the less successful recently wrapped 2014-2015 term could be an indication that the judicial tides may be...more
During the United States Supreme Court’s 2014-2015 term, the Court departed from the pro-business reputation it had developed in labor and employment cases. This term, employees prevailed more often than not, including in...more
Can you make apples out of applesauce? A first look at implications of the United States Supreme Court's decision (once again) in favor of the Affordable Care Act....more
The U.S. Supreme Court has once again ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At issue in King. v. Burwell was whether the landmark legislation allows federal subsidies to be given to low-income consumers residing...more
In our previous blog post, we evaluated the legal issues at stake in King v. Burwell. We will now examine some of the ramifications of a Supreme Court decision that goes against the Obama Administration, assuming such were to...more
The health care industry has been closely watching four cases challenging whether federal subsidies could be used to reduce costs to consumers for health insurance purchased on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) Exchange in a state...more
On March 4, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in King v. Burwell, the highest profile challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision to uphold the law. The...more
Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, March 4, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in King v. Burwell, a case that will determine whether the Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits individuals who buy individual health insurance...more
On November 7, the Supreme Court announced it would hear its second significant legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). King v. Burwell, expected to be heard this spring and ruled on by the end of June, is a direct...more
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would review the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s decision in King v. Burwell. In that case, the Fourth Circuit held that tax credits for health insurance...more
Are the federal government’s subsidies to purchasers of health insurance available only to those who purchase insurance from state-run exchanges or to those who purchase from federal health care exchanges as well? Was the...more
AffOn Tuesday, September 30, federal Judge Ronald White of the Eastern District of Oklahoma ruled in Pruitt v. Burwell that the plain text of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) does not allow for the...more
On September 4, 2014, the D.C. Circuit vacated a panel decision in Halbig v. Burwell (Civ. No. 14-5018) striking down the federal government’s provision of premium subsidies to individuals purchasing coverage through the...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled, in a 2-to-1 decision, in Halbig v. Burwell that the IRS is not authorized under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to provide tax credits intended to subsidize the cost of...more
On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling by a three judge panel, invalidated an Internal Revenue Service regulation that interpreted section 36B of the Affordable Care Act...more
Both decisions addressed whether tax credits are available for residents in states that have federally-facilitated health exchanges. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals said “no”; the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals...more
The Health Care Reform Act made many changes to health plans, but one thing it did not do was expressly eliminate or change the COBRA rules. Although health care reform does not expressly change COBRA, it does, in many ways,...more
Survey of ACA Navigators Finds 10.6 Million People Sought Enrollment Help — In a survey released this week, the Kaiser Family Foundation (“Kaiser”) estimates that approximately 10.6 million people received assistance...more
On May 16, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") released a final rule titled "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Exchange and Insurance Market Standards for 2015 and Beyond" ("Final Rule")...more