TPD collaborated with Barran Liebman LLP, an employment law firm in the US to get the community informed on the Affordable Care Act. During the June 21, 2017 webinar, attendees learned what employers are responsible for when it comes to healthcare under the Trump administration. However, this topic has generated quite a lot of buzz, so we had the Attorney Allison J. Jacobsen answer some of the most pressing questions that came out of the online workshop:

I do not quite understand the limits for the Cadillac Tax. $10,200 per year for the employee cost?

The Cadillac Tax provision of the ACA provides that employers will be taxed 40% on plans with annual premiums that exceed a certain amount - $10,800 for individual coverage or $29,500 for family coverage (adjusted annually). Employers will be taxed just on the amount that exceeds those limits, not the total cost.

For companies that want to remain under 50 employees and temporary/seasonal employees are under another employee of record (like a workforce agency), does that company still count the employees that are not on their employee of record?

While a bit complicated, figuring out which company counts the temporary/seasonal employee under these circumstances will come down to the results of what is known as the common law test to determine the employer-employee relationship for purposes of the ACA employer mandate. Under this test created by the IRS, one can determine who is the “employer” and the “employee” in certain situations by considering factors in three categories: behavioral control, financial control and the type of relationship. If a temporary or seasonal employee is found to be the employee of the workforce agency when tested under those common law control factors, then that employee would not be counted by the other company, regardless of any type of staffing services agreement that may state otherwise.

We only send out form 1095-C to the employees and do not report anything on the W-2's. We only report fully paid medical benefits for internal staff on W-2's. We need a clarification on whether ACA amounts should be reported on W-2's and if so, what is the purpose of the 1095-C sent to the employees?

The ACA requires that all employers providing applicable employer-sponsored coverage under a group health plan must report both the portion paid by the employer and the portion paid by the employee on the Form W-2. According to the IRS, the purpose of the reporting requirement is to provide employees useful and comparable consumer information on the cost of their health care coverage. The 1095-C Form only indicates what months of the year the employee was enrolled in coverage, not the value of the coverage.

The Senate revealed a secret health care bill in response to the House of Representatives’ American Healthcare Act bill last week. What’s in it?

In short, the Senate’s version of the bill, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act, has some key differences in how it deals with premium tax credits for purchasing insurance on the exchanges, as well as the timing in restructuring Medicaid expansion. Repeal of the employer mandate remains intact in the Senate’s version.

When can we expect the Senate to vote on the bill?

When can we expect the Senate to vote on the bill? This is a very fluid story that we are following very closely, but the Senate leadership has stated just on June 27, 2017 that the vote will now take place sometime after the July 4, 2017 recess. For breaking news on laws and legislation delivered to your inbox on this topic, as well as other employment-related issues, sign up for our firm’s complimentary alerts.