According to recent estimates by Fidelity Investments, a couple will incur an estimated $280,000 worth of medical expenses after turning 65 years of age. They estimate this cost every year and when they publish it, I can’t help but have an anxiety spike as I ponder the reality of that number. Even if they are off and have over-estimated by 50%, the remaining number is still very hard for me to swallow. And, as anxiety has habit of doing, it sends me into panic mode and I scramble to reevaluate my retirement planning in an attempt to ward off the eventual doom and gloom that has settled on the far horizon of my life.
It’s no secret that one of the primary agenda items of the new Republican administration is to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and to sign into law a plan that they feel will be more effective in managing health care costs. Their initial attempt at a new plan, called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), included an increased focus on leveraging 
Last fall, President Barack Obama signed the
If you are an Applicable Large Employer (ALE), you may still be catching your breath from 2015 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting. However, in a couple of weeks the process starts all over again as you prepare for the 2016 reporting cycle. As with all new requirements, the first filing cycle had some bumps as there was little guidance for some of the questions and issues that arose. In preparation for 2017, let’s take a look at the “C” forms and discuss areas of the forms that may have been confusing.
In a few weeks, a second season of shared responsibility reporting will begin. For some of you, last year’s inaugural year of reporting may have felt eerily similar to Lewis Carroll’s famous book. You know the one. It included a little girl falling down a dark hole, a rabbit frantically checking his watch and a lot of other crazy characters. Now that you have the benefit of one year of reporting under your belt, let’s look at the reporting forms and try to make them less confusing by breaking them down.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), all public Exchanges are required to notify employers when an employee is receiving a subsidy (tax credits and cost-sharing reductions) for individual health insurance purchased through an Exchange. According to the final rules published in August 2013, employers have the right, but are not required, to engage in an appeal process through the IRS if they feel an employee should not be receiving a subsidy because the employer offers minimum value, affordable coverage.
Employers with self-insured health plans are facing new Section 6055 regulations regarding the reporting of minimum essential coverage. The proposed regulation requires self-insured employers to report this information to the IRS on either Form 1095-B or in Part III of Form 1095-C, if the coverage is provided by an applicable large employer.