On September 30th, the IRS issued proposed regulations that establish safe harbors for compliance with the employer mandate in the context of individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (or “ICHRAs”). These proposed regulations are important for employers that choose to offer ICHRAs and want to be sure they comply with the employer shared responsibility
Digging into the New HRA Regulations Part 4: Excepted Benefit HRAs
New regulations issued by the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (the “Departments”) have expanded the use of health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”), including permitting the use of HRAs to reimburse premiums for individual health insurance coverage. As part of this expansion, and recognizing that some employers might want the flexibility to…
Digging into the New HRA Regulations, Part 3 – Premium Tax Credit and Employer Mandate Impact on Individual Coverage HRAs
As part of our ongoing series on the final regulations expanding the availability of health reimbursement accounts (“HRAs”), we discussed the newly-created Individual Coverage HRAs, which generally allow for employers to reimburse employees’ premiums for health coverage purchased on the individual market. As noted in the final regulations, the new Individual Coverage HRA is…
Digging into the New HRA Regulations, Part 2 – ERISA Implications
New regulations issued by the Departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services have expanded the use of health reimbursement accounts (“HRAs”) by allowing reimbursements for individual market insurance premiums. As noted in the final regulations, Individual Coverage HRAs and Excepted Benefit HRAs are group health plans subject to ERISA. However, individual health insurance…
Digging into the New HRA Regulations Part 1 – Individual Coverage HRAs
As discussed in our June 18th blog entry, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”) recently released final regulations expanding the use of health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”). Among the more important aspects of the final regulations was the reversal of long-standing Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) policy that…
Departments Publish Final Regulations Expanding the Availability of HRAs
On June 13, 2019, the Department of Labor, together with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Treasury (collectively, the “Departments”), published final regulations designed to expand the use of health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”). The final regulations provide, in general, that HRAs may be used to (1) reimburse premiums for…
Agencies Release Guidance on HRAs, FSAs, and Employer Payment Plans
On Friday, September 13, 2013, the IRS released Notice 2013-54 and the DOL issued Technical Release 2013-03 in substantially identical form. This guidance, which is generally effective January 1, 2014, provides much needed clarification on the application of certain provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) (annual limits and preventive care) to account-based plans such as HRAs and FSAs, and other types of arrangements that reimburse premiums (referred to in the guidance as “Employer Payment Plans”).
The guidance indicates that the agencies are generally viewing HRAs, FSAs, and Employer Payment Plans as group health plans for purposes of ACA. This means that these arrangements will qualify as “minimum essential coverage” for covered employees (i.e., they will preclude employees from receiving a premium credit), unless they are “excepted benefits” under HIPAA. This also means that these arrangements will need to comply with ACA’s annual dollar limit prohibition and preventive care requirements, unless they are integrated with a compliant group health plan (or are excepted benefits).