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Tag: insurance requirements

Employee Benefits Update: The Impact of the Supreme Court’s DOMA Decision On Your Employee Benefit Plans and Policies

Executive Summary
The Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor recently struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, effectively creating a patchwork of different state laws that determine who qualifies as a “spouse”. This ruling will result in significant changes to the administration of employer-sponsored retirement plans, health and welfare plans, payroll practices, and FMLA policies. However, significant questions also remain unanswered until the government issues guidance for the employer community.

What You Should Do
Review the charts in this Employee Benefits Update, and the checklist of next steps, so that you can determine how the Supreme Court’s decision is likely to change your benefit plans and policies, as we wait for further guidance from the government about the details of how these changes will be implemented.

Click here for full update for regarding the recent DOMA decision and how it may impact your employee benefit plans and policies.

Source:  Isler Dare, P.C.

People Wanting Obamacare Consumer Penalty Waived Outnumber Penalty Supporters 3 to 1

In the aftermath of last week’s surprise 2014 waiver of the employer-mandate to provide health insurance or face a fine, HealthPocket surveyed consumers to assess their feelings regarding the decision not to extend a similar penalty waiver to uninsured consumers.

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For employers with 50 or more workers in 2014,1 there was a $2,000 penalty per full time employee for those employees not provided health insurance meeting the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. This insure-or-face-a-penalty provision does not become active for employers until 2015 now that the waiver for 2014 has been announced. However, most consumers still face a penalty for being uninsured starting in 2014. The 2014 penalty amount for individuals is 1% of their annual income or $95, whichever is the larger amount. Families face higher penalties than individuals and the penalty amount itself increases each year until 2016 when it reaches $695 or 2.5% of annual income for individuals, whichever is larger. After 2016 the penalty is adjusted based on cost-of-living.

Click here to read more.

House To Vote On Delaying Obamacare’s Individual Mandate

In the House, Republicans will have no problem finding a simple majority to pass legislation that would delay the individual mandate needed to fund the president’s health care reforms.

The GOP spent the last three years voting to repeal Obamacare only to have all of those efforts killed in the Democratically led Senate. But Republicans believe their latest effort has new momentum now that Obama has decided to delay another provision of the law, the employer mandate requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance.

The “Fairness for American Families Act,” scheduled for a Wednesday vote, would change the date of implementation of the individual mandate from Dec. 31, 2013, to the same day in 2014.

The mandate requires everyone to either buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the Obama administration’s decision to delay only the employer mandate is “unfair and indefensible.”

The legislation may never get consideration in the Senate, but it will put political pressure on Democrats in both chambers who fear that opposing the bill will make it appear as if they are providing a break to big business but not individuals.

Even though Obama has already announced a delay of the employer mandate based on his own authority. But the House insists that such a crucial change requires congressional approval and lawmakers will take up the “Authority for Mandate Delay Act” that would allow them to vote on whether to authorize an action the president has already authorized.

The bill’s author, Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., said the legislation is required because “only Congress can change the law.”

Source: The Examiner

Obamacare Business Mandate Delay Has Minimal Impact On Implementation of PPACA

Obama Administration announced through two blog posts that a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be delayed one year. The first blog post was on the Department of Treasury website, that a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), would be delayed until January of 2015. Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, in a statement Tuesday that “We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so. We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action.”

Click here to read more.

ACA Exchange Notice

Federal and state governments are manufacturing insurance exchanges/market places as another resource for existing insurance carriers to offer their products and plans. These same products and plans will be available outside the exchanges/market places. For most employers, this new market place will be a redundancy to the way you currently understand insurance to work. The benefactors will primarily be the indigent and certain small businesses that qualify for financial assistance.  As always, Cosby Insurance group will provide you thorough analysis of all your choices.

However, the Affordable Care Act (ACA or health care reform law) added a section to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that said employers must provide a written notice to each existing employee. The Department of Labor (DOL) provided an update with temporary guidance and templates of the required notices. Starting on October 1, 2013, the notices have to be given to new employees on the day they are hired. The notices have to be given to existing employees no later than October 1, 2013. The notices will:

  • Advise employees about exchanges including a description of the services provided and how they can contact exchanges to request assistance;
  • Let employees know they may be eligible for a premium tax credit if the employer-sponsored plan does not meet certain standards, and the employee buys a qualified health plan through an exchange;
  • Explains that if the employee buys a qualified health plan through an exchange, he or she may lose the employer contribution to any health benefit plan the employer offers, and that all or a portion of the contribution may be excluded from income for Federal tax purposes.

Please know that the quality and affordability of your employer-sponsored benefits is important to being  a competitive employer. Providing competitive and affordable  benefits is now more important than ever.

Important links:
Technical Release 2013-02
Model Exchange Notice
Cobra model