By Brydon M. DeWitt: The Obama administration’s one-year delay in the employer health insurance mandate was welcome relief for many employers. But, time is still running short. Employers need to plan for compliance now. Beginning January 1, 2015, employers that do not offer adequate health...

The rollout of health benefits exchanges was pretty bumpy across the nation last Tuesday, but that didn't stop California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) from throwing his full support behind the Affordable Care Act. Brown signed 10 health care-related bills on Oct. 1, the same day the Golden State's exchange...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

INDIANAPOLIS — (Mealey’s) A state and 39 school districts challenging the legality of payments imposed on large employers under the Internal Revenue Services’ implementation and interpretation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations allege an addressable injury...

The looming implementation of another round of employer mandates under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has business leaders scrambling for help from legal counsel and other advisors. This flurry of activity is prudent; compliance with ACA is a matter of federal law and many penalties for failure to comply...

By Jean Hemphill and Brian Pinheiro In response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc., [ enhanced opinion available to lexis.com subscribers ], the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Labor (DOL) published proposed rules on August 22, 2014, expanding...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) Eligible employers opposed to Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions mandating insurance coverage for contraceptives may notify the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which will in turn notify the employer’s insurer...

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. — (Mealey’s) States with expanded Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) saw a threefold increase in emergency-department visits over nonexpansion states in the second quarter of 2014, according to a Sept. 8 study. (This story is an...

By Rich Ehisen | Note: On Nov. 4, 46 states will hold legislative elections, while 36 will elect or retain a governor. Meanwhile, 41 states will also weigh in on a wide range of ballot measures addressing some of the most controversial issues of the year, including abortion, marijuana use and the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 7 agreed to decide whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) authorizes tax subsidies for individuals who enroll in insurance through state exchanges ( David King, et al. v. Sylvia Mathew Burwell, et al. , No...

By Edward I. Leeds and Daniel V. Johns Effective January 1, 2015, colleges and universities will need to comply with the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act, which will have particular implications involving certain student employees. The employer mandate requires large employers (defined...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) Both sides faced critical questioning from Justice Anthony Kennedy during oral arguments March 4 in the case challenging the availability of subsidies in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) federal exchange ( David King, et al. v. Sylvia Mathew...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) The U.S. Supreme Court on March 9 vacated a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that denied the University of Notre Dame an injunction in its challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) accommodation process and remanded the case...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Mealey’s) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s structure suggests the availability of tax subsidies in the federal exchange, and Congress could not have intended the state insurance market “death spirals” likely to result from barring...

By: Brydon M. DeWitt This morning [June 25], the Supreme Court ruled that Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits will remain available to individuals residing in states that did not establish their own health insurance marketplaces. In King v. Burwell , the Supreme Court analyzed ACA statutory...

By Anne Pachciarek and Rita M. Patel | On June 25, the US Supreme Court issued a 6-3 opinion in King v. Burwell upholding the Affordable Care Act’s subsidy scheme [ enhanced opinion available to lexis.com subscribers ] [lexis.com subscribers may access Supreme Court briefs for this case ...