Updates for Employers on Important Workplace Issues
Premium discounts and surcharges on employee contributions to employer-sponsored health plans based on COVID-19 vaccination status has become a hot topic. On October 4, 2021, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury issued FAQs regarding the application of the HIPAA wellness program rules to vaccine-related premium surcharges and discounts.
HIPAA prohibits group…
On July 8, 2020, the United States Supreme Court (“SCOTUS”) held in a 7-2 decision that employers may exclude birth control from their health care plans if they have moral or religious oppositions to contraception. This decision upheld the Trump Administration’s November 2018 final rules which provide exceptions to the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) mandate…
The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday, March 2, that it will again review the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate, and whether, if the mandate is unconstitutional, it can be separated from the rest of the ACA.
In January’s blog, we reported that in Texas v. U.S., the individual…
On December 18, 2019, a federal appeals court ruled that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate is unconstitutional, since the mandate tax penalty had been reduced to zero. The individual mandate, the requirement that everyone have health insurance coverage, was previously challenged as unconstitutional. In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that the individual mandate…
On December 14, 2018, a federal district court in Texas held in Texas v. United States that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate is unconstitutional. The court also concluded that because the individual mandate cannot be severed from ACA, the entire law is invalid.
Background
As you may recall, the ACA has both an…
Notwithstanding all the news about repeal and changes to the Affordable Care Act, we are aware that the Internal Revenue Service is enforcing current provisions and assessing penalties.
Enforcement of the 2015 Employer Mandate Penalty
The IRS has announced that it will assess employer mandate penalties for the 2015 tax year. Employers who had 100…
