We have received multiple calls from panicked clients in the past several days due to the clients receiving Health Insurance Marketplace Notices from HHS. If you received one of these notices, please don’t panic quite yet. It does not necessarily mean that your company is subject to a shared responsibility penalty. You ...
The short answer is no. But if you offer coverage to some employees, you have to offer it to all “eligible employees.”
If you have fewer than 50 full-time equivalent employees, you are not subject to the pay or play penalties under the ACA if you fail to offer health plan coverage to your full-time employees. However, if you are ...
Applicable large employers (“ALEs”) often utilize workers from staffing firms, sometimes on a long-term basis. For purposes of the pay or play provisions of the ACA, it’s important for ALEs to determine its obligation to make offers of coverage to these workers. The key factor is whether the staffing firm or the ALE is the ...
Most Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) have worked out the major kinks in the ACA reporting process. Now, many employers are sorting out how to determine the full-time status of their ongoing employees. Certain types of leave can create a lot of confusion for ALEs when calculating hours of service, especially under the lookback ...
If certain conditions are satisfied, an applicable large employer may use one or more of the three affordability safe harbors to determine if it’s offering affordable coverage under the ACA. There are substantial limitations and risks associated with each safe harbor.
The federal poverty level safe harbor requires just one ...
Under recent IRS guidance, there will be minimal changes to the annual contribution limits to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that will be tax-deductible for 2017. Actually, there will only be one change from 2016. Under Rev. Proc. 2016-28, an individual may contribute $3,400 to an HSA under a high deductible health plan for 2017 ...
In 2013, the Department of Health & Human Services (“HHS”) announced a transitional policy that allowed insurers to renew non-grandfathered health insurance plans in the individual and small markets that did not comply with certain ACA mandates. This transitional relief is only available for individual and small market ...
It’s no secret that multiemployer pension plans, like most defined benefit plans, are underfunded. Unfunded pension liability, also referred to as employer withdrawal liability, creates substantial risks for more than the employers obligated to make contributions to these multiemployer pension plans. Multiemployer ...
Today, the DOL released the much anticipated fiduciary rule. The final regulations create a new playing field for certain investment professionals, which were previously not governed by ERISA’s fiduciary standards and rules governing prohibited transactions.
Citing a need to create better safeguards and protect ...
David M. Pixley
Under the ACA, non-grandfathered group health plans must limit enrollees’ out-of-pocket costs for essential health benefits. Under the final HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2017, the HHS bumped up the out-of-pocket maximums. HHS based its calculations on two factors, the cost sharing limit for 2014, which ...