In the summer of 2019, I wrote a short blog on the death of the PCORI fee -- Ding, Dong, the PCORI Fee is Dead!. When enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act, the fee was set to expire with plan/policy years ending after September 30, 2019.
The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, signed by President Trump on December 20, 2019, extended the PCORI fee for another ten years. The fee is now set to expire with plan/policy years ending after September 30, 2029.
So, Ding, Dong, the PCORI Fee is NOT Dead!
Since 2015, employers and health insurers have been required to report health plan coverage information to the IRS and to individuals. Why? The information is necessary in order for the IRS to administer certain portions of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), such as whether (1) a “pay or play” penalty is assessable for noncompliance with the coverage requirements, (2) an individual is eligible for a premium tax subsidy, and (3) the individual mandate penalty is assessable.
Recently issued Notice 2019-63 contains three gifts from the IRS in the form of limited relief to ...
On April 29, 2019, the United States Department of Labor (the “DOL”) released a policy statement providing transitional relief from the potential adverse consequences arising from a District Court’s vacating portions of the DOL’s regulations on the alternative test of the definition of “employer” for Association Health Plan (“AHP”) purposes.
By way of background, on June 21, 2018, the DOL published regulations which established an alternative test that described in prior DOL guidance as to who can sponsor an ERISA-covered AHP as an “employer” (the ...
On January 22, 2018, President Trump signed into law H.R. 195 (hereinafter referred to as the "2018 Budget Deal") which ended the federal government shutdown and funds the federal government through February 8, 2018. In addition, the 2018 Budget Deal included a six-year funding extension to the Children's Health Insurance Program. The 2018 Budget Deal also contains a two year delay to the effective dates of the "Cadillac Tax", the medical device excise tax, and an annual fee on health insurance providers. This blog will review the two year delays to the above-referenced taxes and ...
On March 24, 2017 the vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act ('Obamacare') was cancelled when it became clear there were not enough Republican votes to move it past the House of Representatives. All eyes have now turned to the President's plan to reform the tax code. However, the two issues are not exclusive. Part of the strategy to focus on the repeal and replacement of Obamacare was to create savings that would further support the later tax cuts without increasing the deficit. Tax reform is still on the table and appears to be a priority for the administration and Republicans. It is likely ...
On March 6, 2017, the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released a section by section summary of the tax related sections of the American Health Care Act (the "AHCA"). On March 9, 2017, the Ways and Means Committee completed its markup of the AHCA's tax provisions with no changes. The AHCA is the legislation that is intended to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly referred to and hereinafter referred to as "Obamacare").
While it is still very early in the process and the AHCA is expected to be substantially modified during ...