Healthcare

On Jan. 15, 2021, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an amendment to the reporting timeline and process for the Provider Relief Fund Program and opened registration for their Provider Relief Fund Reporting Portal...

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced amended terms for payments issued under the Accelerated and Advance Payment (AAP) Program as required by recent action by President Trump and Congress.  This Medicare loan program allows CMS to make advance payments to providers and are typically used in emergency situations. Under the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, repayment will now begin one year from the issuance date of each provider or supplier’s accelerated or advance payment. CMS issued $106 billion in payments to providers and suppliers in order to alleviate the financial burden healthcare providers faced while experiencing cashflow issues in the early stages of combating COVID-19...

Written by Fred Schaard, CARR Healthcare Realty   One of the most significant business decisions you will make is the strategic choice of your office’s location. In many markets, the incentives offered by landlords to new tenants make relocation more appealing than renewing a lease in your existing space, and before signing any lease renewal you should evaluate all the options in your area. If you decide to open a new office, whether as a relocation, new start-up practice, property purchase, or second office, having the right team in place is paramount and can make the process successful, profitable and maybe even fun! The unique office needs of healthcare providers are foreign to most real estate brokers, architects and other service providers...

Question: Our company is exploring the idea of offering a qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangement (QSEHRA). If we decide to go this route, would we be required to report any information about this benefit on employees’ Forms W-2? Answer: Yes. If an employee is covered under a QSEHRA, the employer must report the total amount of the employee’s permitted QSEHRA benefit on Form W-2 in Box 12, using Code “FF...

Cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) applicable to 2019 are available for a wide variety of tax limits, including many related to provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Let’s look at some highlights that are related to health care benefits provided by employers. Savings accounts Some COLAs affect health-care-related savings accounts. For example, the dollar limit on employee salary reduction contributions to health Flexible Spending Accounts has been raised from $2,650 to $2,700...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a work in progress since its enactment nearly nine years ago. You can expect that pattern to continue this year and beyond. The current environment in Washington and a sweeping legal challenge to the ACA’s fundamental constitutionality have given followers of the law’s evolving requirements plenty to monitor and speculate about in the days ahead. Labor market dynamics That legal challenge was made by a U...

Question: Our company sponsors a group health plan that covers employees who work at least 30 hours per week. After reassigning one of our covered full-time employees to a part-time position, we mistakenly continued to provide coverage for two months — collecting premiums and paying claims for that period. After a routine audit, we discovered the error. Can we rescind the employee’s health coverage effective as of the date that his status changed from full-time to part-time?..

Three federal agencies have proposed changes that could bring significant changes to Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs). The IRS, Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly proposed the regulations in response to President Trump’s executive order directing the agencies to consider regulations or guidance that would expand the availability and permitted use of HRAs. Let’s look at some highlights. HRAs funding individual insurance The proposed regulations would allow HRAs to be integrated with, and to reimburse premiums for, individual health insurance coverage if certain conditions are met...

The pace of health care cost inflation has remained moderate over the past year, and employers are trying to keep it that way. Rather than continuing to ask employees to shoulder more of the burden, however, many are aiming at longer-term changes in employee behavior, such as fostering a “culture of health” within their organizations. These insights come from two newly issued reports from a pair of large benefits consulting and insurance brokerage firms, based on surveys conducted earlier this year. Looked at in total, the data indicates that employers are looking less at immediate cost-cutting measures and more at “future-focused” plan features...

Question: Our company, an applicable large employer (ALE) under the Affordable Care Act, sponsors a self-insured health plan. As an ALE, how should we report coverage of family members who elect COBRA separately from the departing employees? Answer: An employer that sponsors a self-insured group health plan is obligated under Internal Revenue Code Section 6055 to report coverage information for all enrollees in the health plan, including nonemployees (such as COBRA beneficiaries). COBRA-qualified beneficiaries may include the spouse (or former spouse) and dependents of a current or former employee...