PPC’s Guide to Health Care Reform provides a single source of practical easy-to-understand guidance on the key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Additionally, since Congress left much of the implementation to government agencies, it provides ongoing coverage of IRS, DOL, and HHS pronouncements to help you stay abreast of developments and expanded reporting requirements as they unfold.
Besides covering many of the health care related topics, the Guide also covers provisions of the legislation that are not health care related, but affect many taxpayers, such as the creation of simple cafeteria plans, new Form W-2 reporting requirements, and increased Medicare taxes for high-income individuals.
The Guide includes real-life examples, worksheets, filled-in forms, quick reference charts of the various implementation dates, client letters, and a newsletter that provides important coverage of developments as they occur.
Major topics covered include:
- Coverage of the legislation's mandate that individuals have minimal essential health insurance coverage or pay a penalty (i.e., the individual shared responsibility penalty).
- A discussion detailing which employers must offer health insurance coverage to their full-time employees and the penalties (i.e., employer shared responsibility penalties) for not offering affordable health care insurance that provides a certain minimum value.
- A detailed discussion of the small employer health insurance credit that is effective for tax years beginning in 2010-2013 for qualifying small businesses that pay a portion of their employees' health care insurance costs. Comprehensive examples explain how the credit is calculated. A questionnaire and organizer sheets to help gather the information needed and worksheets that can be used to calculate the credit are included. The Checkpoint version includes access to the Interactive Decision Tool "Determining Eligibility and Input for the Small Employer Health Insurance Credit."
- Information on the additional 0.9% Medicare tax on earned income, including a discussion on employers’ responsibilities for withholding the new tax.
- Discussion of the 3.8% tax on net investment income for certain high-income individuals and planning ideas to lessen the effect of the new tax.
- An explanation of the new concepts in health care that the Affordable Care Act contains, including qualified plan, essential health benefits package, and minimum essential coverage.
- Coverage of the 2.3% excise tax that is imposed on the sale of taxable medical devices.
- A discussion of the patient-centered outcomes research fee (PCOR fee) that insurers (for fully insured plans) and plan sponsors (for self-insured plans) must pay for plan years beginning on or after October 1, 2012, and before October 1, 2019.
- The new notice and reporting requirements placed on employers, plans, plan sponsors, and insurers. Included is information on the summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) that employer-sponsored plans and insurers must provide to participants and beneficiaries, and a discussion on the Form W-2 reporting requirements for the aggregate cost of employer-sponsored health coverage.
- A discussion on the medical loss ratio rebates, including how employer-sponsored plans must handle any rebates received, and the tax consequences of receiving a rebate for the plan, plan sponsor, and plan participants.
- An explanation of the premium assistance credit and cost-sharing-reduction subsidy that will be available beginning in 2014 for many low-income and moderate-income individuals to help with the cost of obtaining health insurance coverage.
- Information on the $2,500 limit for salary reduction contributions to health flexible spending accounts.
- A discussion on the simple cafeteria plans that certain small employers are allowed to establish.
- The latest guidance on the nondiscrimination requirements that will apply to fully insured plans.
- Information on the requirement that coverage for dependent children must be offered until the child reaches age 26 and the income exclusion rules related to such coverage.
- A discussion of the provisions that grandfathered group health plans are not required to comply with and which ones they must follow. Additionally, information on what plans must do to keep their grandfathered status is provided.
- Details about the penalties employers are subject to for providing high-cost insurance (i.e., Cadillac plans) to employees beginning in 2018.
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