Adjusted Community Rating under PPACA is explained here, what Employers and Individuals need to know.
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE
Posts Tagged health care reform
This is an overview of the Penalties, Taxes, Fees, and other items that need to be considered and calculated by individuals and businesses as it relates to the Provisions and mandates under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act PPACA.
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE
Below in the BOX is a list of resources that you can use to understand what “EHB” or Essential Health Benefits are and how they work, who is respondible for providing them and who is exempt.
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE
Check out this folder below for resources that explain what the MLR (Minimum Loss Ratios) are and how they can affect you, your company.
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE
Appeals under the Affordable Care Act
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE
Preventive Care Available under the Affordable Care Act
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE check out the resources in the BOX folder below as well.
Why Healthcare Reform – An Overview
For more information for Individuals CLICK HERE OR For Employers CLICK HERE
Today, the Supreme Court issued an opinion related to health care reform. A divided Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s health-care law. The court said Congress was acting within its powers under the Constitution when it required most Americans to carry health insurance or pay a tax. Chief Justice Roberts’ vote saved the ACA.
The Affordable Care Act, including its individual mandate that virtually all Americans buy health insurance, is constitutional. There were not five votes to uphold it on the ground that Congress could use its power to regulate commerce between the states to require everyone to buy health insurance. However, five Justices agreed that the penalty that someone must pay if he refuses to buy insurance is a kind of tax that Congress can impose using its taxing power. That is all that matters. Because the mandate survives, the Court did not need to decide what other parts of the statute were constitutional, except for a provision that required states to comply with new eligibility requirements for Medicaid or risk losing their funding. On that question, the Court held that the provision is constitutional as long as states would only lose new funds if they didn’t comply with the new requirements, rather than all of their funding.
The bottom line is that the entire ACA is upheld, with the exception that the federal government’s power to terminate states’ Medicaid funds is limited.
Please see below for a detailed overview of each opinion.
- The individual mandate survives as a tax. The only effect of not complying with the mandate is that you pay the tax. The Court holds that the mandate violates the Commerce Clause, but that doesn’t matter b/c there are five votes for the mandate to be constitutional under the taxing power. The Court holds that the Anti-Injunction Act doesn’t apply because the label “tax” is not controlling.
- The Medicaid provision is limited, but not invalidated. A majority of the Court holds that the Medicaid expansion is constitutional but that it will be unconstitutional for the federal government to withhold Medicaid funds for non-compliance with the expansion provisions. Another way to think about Medicaid is that the Constitution requires that states have a choice about whether to participate in the expansion of eligibility; if they decide not to, they can continue to receive funds for the rest of the program.
Click here to read the official opinion.
Original Posted by Rick Lindquist on Thu, Jun 28, 2012 @ 09:15 AM
From the beginning of the Chief’s opinion: “We do not consider whether the Act embodies sound policies. That judgment is entrusted to the Nation’s elected leaders. We ask only whether Congress has the power under the Constitution to enact the challenged provisions.”
Posted @ Thursday, June 28, 2012 10:03 AM by Rick Lindquist
English: The United States Supreme Court, the highest court in the United States, in 2010. Top row (left to right): Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Bottom row (left to right): Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Small employers” who qualify for this 2010 income tax credit (including churches and section 501(C) (3) charitable organizations) must satisfy ALL of the following conditions:
One component of the huge healthcare legislation is a tax credit for small employers who pay at least 50% of their employees’ health insurance premiums. Unlike most of the future healthcare bill provisions, this employer federal tax credit can be claimed for year 2010 tax returns due this Spring.
Calculations for this new tax credit are very complex (even by tax law standards!) and are reported on new IRS Form 8941 – a one page tax form which requires completion of 7 different worksheets to accurately calculate the tax credit. You can review IRS Form 8941 with instructions at www.irs.gov. IRS information and resources
Initially, the IRS outlined rules for the tax credit in Notice 2010-44. A follow-up document, Notice 2010-82, explained transition relief related to the rules for a qualifying arrangement and provided more details about the requirements. For example, Notice 2010-82 clarifies how an employer that offers more than one plan determines whether its contribution amount meets the threshold for a qualifying arrangement. The IRS has released several additional items related to the tax credit, including:
Three Simple Steps Fact Sheet | Frequently Asked Questions | YouTube Video | More information is available on the IRS website
“Small employers” who qualify for this 2010 income tax credit (including churches and section 501(C) (3) charitable organizations) must satisfy ALL of the following conditions:
1) You paid at least 50% of the “single employee” premium cost for year 2010. Insurance costs are for primary health insurance and dental and vision insurance. Employer contributions to HSAs, HRAs and FSA medical accounts are not deemed insurance and thus are not eligible for the tax credit; AND
2) You employed fewer than 25 “full-time equivalent” (FTE) employees during 2010. In determining FTE employees, 30 employees who worked 20 hours per week count as 15 FTE employees. Employees who you exclude from this FTE “count” include:
- Owners of the employer and their relatives (parents, children, in-laws, aunts/uncles, etc);
- “Seasonal” employees who worked 120 or fewer days for you during 2010; AND
3) Your “average annual wages” paid to employees during 2010 were less than $50,000 per FTE employee. For this purpose “wages” are gross wages paid before any tax or retirement withholdings.
IF YOU MEET ALL 3 OF THESE CONDITIONS, YOU LIKELY QUALIFY FOR THE TAX CREDIT.
How Much is the Tax Credit?
Small employers who pay at least 50% of their employees’ health insurance, have 10 or fewer full-time equivalent employees, with average annual wages of $25,000 or less per “FTE” employee, will receive a tax credit of 35% (25% for churches and 501(C) (3) charitable organizations) of the employer-paid health insurance premiums in 2010. This can be a large tax credit! HOWEVER, as the FTE employee count trends from 10 employees to 25, and the “average wages” per FTE employee trends from $25,000 to $50,000, the tax credit percentage decreases from the 35%/25% ”starting” tax credit rates.
CAN I “EYEBALL” IT?
Catalist has posted a “Short-Cut Small Employer Insurance Credit Percentage” worksheet as a downloadable form, CLICK HERE . Note that the worksheet is divided unto 2 sections, For-Profit Business and Nonprofit Entity. A for-profit business with 14 “FTE” employees and with average 2010 wages per FTE employee of $35,000 would be eligible to claim a federal tax credit of 12% of the employer-paid health insurance premiums paid during 2010. If the employer paid $30,000 of health insurance premiums for their employees in 2010, their 2010 tax credit would be $3,600.
CLAIMING THE TAX CREDIT
So you have met all three of the eligibility requirements and have “eyeballed” our worksheet and estimated you can claim a tax credit of several thousand dollars. Now what?
You begin the process of completing IRS Form 8941, which for-profit employers will attach to their 2010 business income tax return, and churches and other 501 (C) (3) charities/ministries will complete and attach to non-profit IRS Form 990-T.
Since the Form 8941 calculations are confusing and lack substantial guidance from the IRS, we recommend that you be “pragmatic” and make your best effort to complete an accurate Form 8941 and claim the tax credit based on your calculations. “Close is good enough” in horseshoes and with Form 8941 calculations! If your calculations are later found to be slightly incorrect by the IRS, and you have made a “reasonable effort” to accurately prepare Form 8941, then you will be fine.
The small business tax credit is designed to encourage small businesses to offer health care coverage for the first time or to help them maintain the coverage they already have. To help make health care reform work for our customers, One of our Carriers has partnered with H&R Block® to develop the tax credit calculator tool that is available on Anthem’s health care reform website for employers and brokers. Neither this document nor the tax credit calculator is intended to give tax advice. Customers should consult with their tax adviser due to the complexity of the calculation required to determine the amount of credit.
The calculations require that you capture 2010 payroll information for employee hours paid during 2010, and gross wages paid for 2010. Legal updates and tax considerations intended to inform clients and colleagues of Catalist about current payroll issues and planning techniques. You should consult with your CPA or tax advisor before implementing any ideas, comments or planning techniques. For a recommendations, Catalist recommends first consulting with Strategic Partner Profitable Accounting Services.
