For those who think the chance of being assessed penalties for non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act are slim to none, think again. The IRS’ efforts to enforce the ACA’s employer mandate are alive and kicking. Since late November 2017, the IRS has been sending out proposed penalty notices to companies they believe were not
Affordable Care Act
Lawsuit Claiming that Employer Sought to Evade Obamacare Costs Leads to $7.4 Million Class Action Settlement
By David Whitaker, Brian Carnie & Robert Schmidt on
Posted in Labor and Employment Law
As employers are well-aware, the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) imposes certain minimum employee health insurance coverage requirements for employers that employ 50 or more fulltime employees (aka “applicable large employers”). Employers who do not meet the employee coverage mandate face statutory penalties for non-compliance. In the face of these additional costs, some employers…
Some (But Not All) ACA Deadlines Extended for 2016 Reporting Year
By Brian Carnie on
Posted in Health Law, Labor and Employment Law
On Friday, November 18, 2016, the IRS announced an automatic extension of the Affordable Care Act deadlines for distributing the 1094-B/1095-B and 1094-C/1095-C forms to employees. This relief gives applicable employers an additional 30 days (from January 31, 2017 to March 2, 2017) to deliver these forms to employees. This relief only applies for the…
CMS Issues Final Rule for Reporting and Returning Overpayments
By Kean Miller on
Posted in Health Law
On February 12, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) promulgated the final rule on the requirement that providers and suppliers receiving funds under the Medicare program report and return overpayments by the later of sixty (60) days after the date on which the overpayment was identified…
Louisiana Employers Beware: Your Reimbursement Plan May Violate Affordable Care Act Market Reforms
By Brian Carnie on
Many employers in the past have offered employees cash to reimburse the purchase of an individual policy from a private insurance carrier or on the Marketplace (aka the Exchange) or for other substantiated medical expenses in place of employer sponsored group health coverage. However, the federal government has recently taken the position that such an…
DHH Implements Recovery Audit Contractor Program
By Kean Miller on
Posted in Health Law, Louisiana In General
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (“DHH”) adopted provisions to establish the Recovery Audit Contractor (“RAC”) Program, effective November 20, 2014, as required by the Affordable Care Act. The new RAC program provides yet another mechanism by which DHH, through its contractors, can conduct post-payment audits of claims submitted by providers enrolled in Medicaid.…
The Hobby Lobby Aftermath: What Does This Mean For For-Profit Companies?
By Kean Miller on
Posted in Business and Corporate, Labor and Employment Law
On Monday June 30, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled that requiring family owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) violated a federal law protecting religious freedom. As noted in my previous entry, the contraception coverage requirement was challenged by corporations whose owners claimed that they run…