By Jonathan M. Calpas and Edward I. Leeds The Internal Revenue Service recently released draft versions of the forms that will be used to meet the shared responsibility reporting requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These draft forms have been released for comment and may not be used for filing until they are finalized. Instructions for the forms have not yet been issued, even in draft form. Those instructions...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) A plaintiff challenging the individual mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) cannot do so by arguing that the requirement is a revenue measure that should have originated in the U.S. House of Representatives, a unanimous federal appeals court ruled July 29 ( Matt Sissel v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al. , No. 13-5202, D...

RICHMOND, Va. — (Mealey’s) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) language governing whether individuals who enroll through the federal exchange are entitled to tax credits is ambiguous enough to defer to the Internal Revenue Service’s interpretation, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held July 22 ( David King, et al. v. Sylvia Matthews Burwell, et al. , No. 14-1158, 4th Cir. [ enhanced...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits are available only for individuals who enrolled through state exchanges and not the federal exchange, a District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel majority held July 22. The dissent argued that the suit is a “not-so-veiled attempt to gut” the ACA ( Jacqueline Halbig, et al. v. Sylvia...

What is or what is not a federal question under Grable & Sons Metal Products, Inc. v. Darue Engineering & Manufacturing , 545 U.S. 308 (2005) [ enhanced opinion available to lexis.com subscribers ], is an issue that continues to perplex lawyers, judges, and law students alike. In Hartland Lakeside Joint No. 3 School District v. WEA Insurance Corp., No. 13-3787 (7th Cir. June 27, 2014) [ enhanced opinion ], the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) The Supreme Court should deny a nonprofit Christian liberal arts college’s request for an emergency injunction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraceptive mandate while it appeals an adverse ruling, the government said July 2 in its first post- Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. (573 U.S. ___ [2014]) filing ( Wheaton College v. Sylvia Mathews Burwell...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — (Mealey’s) A Catholic media outlet is entitled to an injunction while it appeals rejection of its Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s contraceptive mandate challenge in light of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (Nos. 13-354, 13-356, U.S. Sup. [lexis.com subscribers may access Supreme Court briefs and an enhanced opinion for this case]), an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel...

Now that the United States Supreme Court has issued its decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. , 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4505 (U.S. June 30, 2014) , many are left with questions on the breadth of the decision and what it means going forwards. Below is a brief primer . [lexis.com subscribers may access Supreme Court briefs and an enhanced opinion for this case].). What was the case about? Two separate cases were...

B y Brydon M. DeWitt The Department of Labor recently issued updated model COBRA continuation coverage and Childrens’ Health Insurance Program (“CHIP”) notices. Plan administrators should begin using the new notices immediately. The revised model COBRA notices address the availability of coverage through Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplaces. The model general notice explains that Marketplace...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on May 8 heard arguments over whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s individual mandate tax constitutes a revenue measure and should properly have originated in the U.S. House of Representatives ( Matt Sissel v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, et al. , No. 13-5202, D.C. Cir....

DURHAM, Ore. — (Mealey’s) Oregon on April 25 dumped its failed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) state exchange at an agency board meeting, with the governing body unanimously adopting a technology workgroup suggestion that the federal exchange provided the most reliable and least costly option going forward. Cover Oregon, the state program governing the exchange, spent $181,580,585 on it...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) The U.S. Supreme Court on March 31 denied petitions for certiorari from two nonprofit religious groups claiming that the contraceptive mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) ( Priests for Life, et al. v. Kathleen Sebelius, et al. , No. 13-891, U.S. Sup., Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) The U.S. Supreme Court on March 25 heard arguments in two cases that will decide whether for-profit, secular businesses have to provide contraceptive services as part of their health insurance packages to employees even if they oppose such measures on religious grounds ( Kathleen Sebelius, et al. v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., et al. , No. 13-354, U.S. Sup.; Conestoga Woods Specialties...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) Plaintiffs cannot squeeze the individual insurance mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into an “arbitrary as-applied” exemption to Congress’ taxing power, a panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed March 7 ( Association of American Physicians & Surgeons Inc., et al. v. Kathleen G. Sebelius, et al...

By Brian M. Pinheiro, Jean C. Hemphill and Jonathan M. Calpas | Very large employers will be required to offer health care coverage to their full-time employees or pay a penalty to the federal government beginning January 1, 2015. Under the final regulations released by the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury Department) on February 10, 2014, however, employers with fewer than 100 full-time employees will have an...

By Brydon M. DeWitt This week, the Treasury Department announced transition rules that delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) employer health insurance mandate for some employers and modify it for others. The ACA requires employers with at least 50 full-time employees to offer affordable health insurance to full-time employees or face penalties. Last summer, the Treasury Department delayed enforcement...

The starkly contrasting ways in which Democrat- and Republican-led states have generally responded to the Affordable Care Act is creating two separate health care systems, according to a report released last week by the Obama administration. Democrat-leaning Kentucky, which has warmly embraced the ACA, and GOP-controlled Louisiana, which has given the law the cold shoulder, are representative. Both states have about 4...

By Lou Cannon Obamacare remains an untidy work in progress in the states, which are struggling with Medicaid expansion, website problems, and insurance issues in an election year in which health care policy issues are overshadowed by partisan politics. Tim Storey, a political analyst with the National Conference of State Legislators, says the Affordable Care Act, known far and wide as Obamacare, is a "lightning...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a pro-life legal organization that focuses on constitutional law, said the Nov. 26 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to take two cases involving a challenge to the ObamaCare HHS Mandate represents a significant opportunity for the high court to protect the religious freedom of companies and their owners. "We're extremely pleased that the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. —(Mealey’s) The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 26 announced that it granted certiorari in two cases challenging the birth control mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Both of the cases involve for-profit companies opposed to the mandate on religious grounds. In one of the cases, the lower court granted a preliminary injunction to halt the implementation...

By Lou Cannon | Obamacare is clinging to existence. After the bungled rollout of the federal health care website and President Obama's contrite admission that he misled millions of Americans into believing they could keep their insurance policies, opponents of Obamacare now have hopes of undoing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for the first time since the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality...

Under a program created by the Affordable Care Act called the State Innovation Models Initiative, six states — Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Vermont — began testing new health care financing models this year. Colorado, New York, and Washington will be next up to try their cost-containment experiments, with another 16 states waiting in the wings. About $10 billion of the ACA's $1...

Calling the ongoing rollout of the Affordable Care Act "a failed experiment," Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) announced The Last Frontier State will not expand Medicaid eligibility in line with the law. "I believe a costly Medicaid expansion especially on top of the broken Obamacare system is a hot mess," Parnell told reporters at an Anchorage news conference called to announce his decision. Several studies...

Only three states — Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York — reached their enrollment targets in the first month of open enrollment in the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act. All three states, which run their own exchanges, actually exceeded their targets, with Connecticut nearly doubling its goal of 2,310 enrollments. The states with the lowest enrollment rates are relying on...

In May the Congressional Budget Office projected that as a result of the Affordable Care Act, nine million more Americans would enroll in Medicaid in 2014 and seven million would sign up for private health coverage through new health-insurance exchanges. In the initial weeks of the health reform law's rollout, Medicaid enrollments were roughly on pace with that estimate, but enrollments in private insurance were well...