Application of Market Reform and other Provisions of the Affordable Care Act to HRAs, Health FSAs, and Certain other Employer Healthcare Arrangements

By Justyn Harkin, Communications Specialist, The Jellyvision Lab

Wow, did someone get the license number from that truck? My head is spinning. I mean, one moment I was just minding my own business, peacefully thinking about clever ways to explain coverage options to employees, and the next—major changes to key provisions of the ACA!

On May 8, 2013, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) issued Technical Release No. 2013-02 (“Release”) providing important guidance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (“Affordable Care Act”), with regard to the requirement that employers provide notices to their employees of the existence of the Health Insurance Marketplace (“Marketplace”), previously referred to as the “Exchange.”

Under health care reform, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a new nonprofit corporation was established, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCOR). This corporation will be funded in part by PCOR/CER (Comparative Effectiveness Research) fees paid by certain health insurance issuers or plan sponsors of applicable self-insured health plans. Please note that Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) are categorized as self-insured health plans and are therefore subject to this fee unless, in rare occasions, it is determined to be an excepted benefit (i.e. for vision and dental expenses only).

On April 30, 2013, the Internal Revenue (IRS) released proposed regulations which provide guidance on health care reform’s premium tax credit for the health insurance exchanges.

contributed by: Dan Perrin, Executive Director of the HSA Coalition

Despite getting clobbered in the fiscal cliff negotiations, Republicans have something to celebrate this year - the survival of health savings accounts, or HSAs. They had feared

From the November 08, 2012 EBIA Weekly
[Evans v. Books-A-Million, 2012 WL 5379351 (N.D. Ala. 2012)]

The terminated employee in this case sued her former employer for, among other things, not providing her a COBRA election notice for its group dental plan.