Home Health & Hospice Week

Shared responsibility payments required in law put off even further.

You’ve got a little breathing room on an Affordable Care Act requirement that could prove costly. The Obama administration says it will give employers until January 2015 before enforcing the ACA’s mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements. The deadline originally was this coming January.

"We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," says Mark Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in a blog post on that department’s website.

"First, [the delay] will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law," Mazur says. "Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees," he continues.

The delay also means that employers won’t be subject to ACA-required shared responsibility payments until 2015, Mazur adds. The requirement applies to employers with 50 or more full time equivalents (FTEs).

"Postponing the effective date for imposing a penalty of $2,000 per employee on companies who do not provide them with health care coverage is a good start but it is only a delay on the way to a permanent solution," says Val Halamandaris with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice. The requirement, if implemented, will cause "major problems" including restricting access to home care, NAHC contends in a release.

Resource: The Treasury post is at www.treasury.gov/connect/blog/Pages/Continuing-to-Implement-the-ACA-in-a-Careful-Thoughtful-Manner-.aspx.