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COBRA Provisions Play Critical Role in COVID-19 Relief Law

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees and their families have lost group health plan coverage because of layoffs or reduced hours. If your business has had to take such steps, and it’s required to offer continuing health care coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), the recently passed American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) includes some critical provisions that you should be aware of.

100% subsidy

Under the ARPA, assistance-eligible individuals (AEIs) may receive a 100% subsidy for COBRA premiums during the period beginning April 1, 2021, and ending on September 30, 2021.

An AEI is a COBRA qualified beneficiary — in other words, an employee, former employee, covered spouse or covered dependent — who’s eligible for and elects COBRA coverage because of a qualifying event of involuntary termination of employment or reduction of hours. For purposes of the law, the subsidy is available for AEIs for the period beginning April 1, 2021, and ending September 30, 2021.

Extended election period

Individuals without a COBRA election in effect on April 1, 2021, but who would be an AEI if they did, are eligible for the subsidy. Those who elected but discontinued COBRA coverage before April 1, 2021, are also eligible if they’d […]

By |2021-03-24T21:18:41+00:00March 24th, 2021|covid-19, Health care, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

The Latest on COVID-Related Deadline Extensions for Health Care Benefits

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued EBSA Disaster Relief Notice 2021-01, which is of interest to employers. It clarifies the duration of certain COVID-19-related deadline extensions that apply to health care benefits plans.

Extensions to continue

The DOL and IRS issued guidance last year specifying that the COVID-19 outbreak period — defined as beginning March 1, 2020, and ending 60 days after the announced end of the COVID-19 national emergency — should be disregarded when calculating various deadlines under COBRA, ERISA and HIPAA’s special enrollment provisions.

The original emergency declaration would have expired on March 1, 2021, but it was recently extended. Although the agencies defined the outbreak period solely by reference to the COVID-19 national emergency, they relied on statutes allowing them to specify disregarded periods for a maximum of one year. Therefore, questions arose as to whether the outbreak period was required to end on February 28, 2021, one year after it began.

Notice 2021-01answers those questions by providing that the extensions have continued past February 28 and will be measured on a case-by-case basis. Specifically, applicable deadlines for individuals and plans that fall within the outbreak period will be extended (that is, the disregarded period will last) until […]

By |2021-03-12T17:53:12+00:00March 12th, 2021|covid-19, Health care, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

Setting Up a Health Savings Account for Your Small Business

Healthcare and medical business concept

Given the escalating cost of employee health care benefits, your business may be interested in providing some of these benefits through an employer-sponsored Health Savings Account (HSA). For eligible individuals, HSAs offer a tax-advantaged way to set aside funds (or have their employers do so) to meet future medical needs. Here are the key tax benefits:

  • Contributions that participants make to an HSA are deductible, within limits.
  • Contributions that employers make aren’t taxed to participants.
  • Earnings on the funds within an HSA aren’t taxed, so the money can accumulate year after year tax free.
  • HSA distributions to cover qualified medical expenses aren’t taxed.
  • Employers don’t have to pay payroll taxes on HSA contributions made by employees through payroll deductions.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for an HSA, an individual must be covered by a “high deductible health plan.” For 2019, a “high deductible health plan” is one with an annual deductible of at least $1,350 for self-only coverage, or at least $2,700 for family coverage. For self-only coverage, the 2019 limit on deductible contributions is $3,500. For family coverage, the 2019 limit on deductible contributions is $7,000. Additionally, annual out-of-pocket expenses required to […]

By |2020-09-03T20:03:35+00:00October 14th, 2019|business, Health care, hsa|0 Comments

Should Your Health Care Plan be More Future-Focused?

The pace of health care cost inflation has remained moderate over the past year or so, and employers are trying to keep it that way. In response, many businesses aren’t seeking immediate cost-cutting measures or asking employees to shoulder more of the burden. Rather, they’re looking to “future-focused” health care plan features to encourage healthful behaviors.

This was a major finding of the 2018 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, an annual study issued by Mercer.

Virtual care

Among the future-focused strategies highlighted by the survey are telemedicine services. Also known as virtual care, the services streamline delivery of health care services by gathering medical data and offering interaction with health care professionals remotely via apps and the phone.

One of the promises of virtual care services is that patients will be more willing to seek medical attention when it can be delivered conveniently, and this inherent efficiency will lead to better health outcomes and reduced costs. But the study found that, though telemedicine services are widely offered, utilization rates remain low.

Specifically, the proportion of large employers (those with at least 500 employees) incorporating telemedicine into their health benefits — 80% — was up substantially […]

By |2020-09-03T20:04:03+00:00May 6th, 2019|Health care|0 Comments

Do You Know the ABCs of HSAs, FSAs and HRAs?

There continues to be much uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act and how such uncertainty will impact health care costs. So it’s critical to leverage all tax-advantaged ways to fund these expenses, including HSAs, FSAs and HRAs. Here’s how to make sense of this alphabet soup of health care accounts.

HSAs

If you’re covered by a qualified high-deductible health plan (HDHP), you can contribute pretax income to an employer-sponsored Health Savings Account — or make deductible contributions to an HSA you set up yourself — up to $3,450 for self-only coverage and $6,900 for family coverage for 2018. Plus, if you’re age 55 or older, you may contribute an additional $1,000.

You own the account, which can bear interest or be invested, growing tax-deferred similar to an IRA. Withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free, and you can carry over a balance from year to year.

FSAs

Regardless of […]

By |2018-06-26T17:41:04+00:00June 26th, 2018|affordable care act, Health care, hsa|0 Comments
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