21 Jan 2025
Affordable Care Act Nears its 15th Anniversary
March 23, 2025, marks the 15th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) enactment date. A large part of the law’s impact was its requirement that non-grandfathered group health plans and health insurance issuers provide coverage of certain specified preventive services without cost sharing. Section 2713(a)(4) of the Public Health Services Act, as amended by the ACA, requires benefits for certain women's preventive health services as provided for in comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Guidelines mandate coverage, without cost sharing, for several preventive services recommended by the National Academy of Medicine. This includes providing contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancies – which has been challenged with modifications adapted. What might be next?
Related Content
- ACA Contraceptives Coverage Exemptions
- Reference this practice note focusing on the exemptions to the ACA's contraceptive mandate available for certain entities and individuals who object to contraceptives coverage for religious or moral reasons.
- ACA and Group Health Plan Resource Kit
- Celebrate! March 23, 2025, marks the 15th anniversary of the ACA’s enactment. Check out the titles in this resource kit for answers to your ACA questions.
Practical Guidance Updates
Featuring the latest updates from your Practical Guidance account.
- Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Key Legal Developments Tracker (Current)
Stay informed on new developments.- Retirement Plans. EBSA updates rules regarding its Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP). 90 Fed. Reg. 4192 (Jan. 15, 2025). Coincident with the revised VFCP, EBSA amends PTE 2002-51, Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2002-51 to Permit Certain Transactions Identified in the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program, to facilitate the VFCP amendments. See unpublished version.
- Retirement Plans. Treasury Department and IRS proposed regulations addressing several SECURE 2.0 Act provisions relating to catch-up contributions, as generally allowed for employees in a qualified cash or deferred arrangement (like a 401(k) plan) who are age 50 or older. 90 Fed. Reg. 2645 (Jan. 13, 2025).
- Health and Welfare Plans. HHS proposes regulations that would modify the Security Standards for the Protection of Electronic Protected Health Information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH Act). The proposed modifications would revise existing standards to better protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (ePHI). 90 Fed. Reg. 898 (Jan. 6, 2025).
- New! Discover Practical Guidance Content and Resources
Review this informative guide featuring some of the recent content additions to Practical Guidance, designed to help you find the tools and insights you need to work more efficiently and effectively. - Stay informed on SECURE 2.0 Act developments by using our SECURE 2.0 Act Guidance Tracker.
- Document alerts allow you to stay current on legal developments that affect your practice. Find out how to set up your document alerts.
- Review the Chevron Reversal Impact Resource Kit for analysis related to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn four decades of deference to federal agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Resource Kit is a frequently updated collection of current Practical Guidance materials on generative AI, ChatGPT, and similar tools.
- The Practical Guidance Journal features guidance on the use of AI in employment decisions, AI considerations in acquisition agreements, Chevron deference reversal challenges in FDA rulemaking, 50 years of ERISA pension protection, plus obligations and risks related to the provision of anti-overdose medication in the workplace.
- Browse the Practical Guidance Author Center to see the 2000+ leading attorney authors contributing to our 26 practice areas. Interested in becoming a Practical Guidance author? Click here for details. Practical Guidance is committed to amplifying diverse voices of attorneys across all differences, including gender and race.
- Legal Developments provide the latest updates and analyses of emerging topics impacting your practice area. Visit the Legal Developments page to see the latest topics, which also include breaking legal news and related Practical Guidance content.
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