Administration Announces Plan to Postpone Employer Mandate Assessments Until 2015

A Treasury Department official announced late this afternoon that the Obama administration “will provide an additional year” before certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act go into effect. According to the announcement, the one year postponement effectively will extend to assessments against employers based on failing to offer coverage to their full time employees during 2014.

The Treasury official added that postponing these requirements “will make it impractical to determine which employers owe shared responsibility payments (under section 4980H) for 2014. Accordingly, we are extending this transition relief to the employer shared responsibility payments. These payments will not apply for 2014. Any employer shared responsibility payments will not apply until 2015.”

While the announcement itself is not binding on the Treasury Department, it appears that no assessments will be made based on a failure to comply with the employer mandate in any month during 2014.

According to Penny Wofford, a shareholder in the Greenville office of Ogletree Deakins, “The Treasury announcement today provides welcome transition relief for many employers. However, we must wait for formal guidance expected to be published this next week to determine fully the extent of the relief provided and the impact on health care reform preparation plans.”

Trade Associations Ask OMB to Review EEO-1 Pay Data Report

Over the last couple of weeks, much of the media in Washington, D.C., has turned its attention to the new director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), former South Carolina congressman Mick Mulvaney. This is because Mulvaney is in charge of advancing the administration’s first federal budget proposal, as well as coordinating Republicans’ efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

New PPACA Benefit Summary Rules Clarified

If their open enrollment periods start before September 23, 2012, health insurers and employers that sponsor health plans will not have to provide new summaries of benefits and coverage, or “SBCs,” to new enrollees and existing health plan participants later this year, under new final regulations implementing the 2010 health care reform law.

Arbitration Decisions Matter: The NLRB Reverts to Prior Standards on Deferral to Arbitration and Pre-Arbitration Settlements

Arbitration is a strongly favored federal policy and generally can be relied on to resolve even statutory discrimination claims. This is not a novel concept in federal jurisprudence from the Supreme Court of the United States down (although California and the Obama-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have and had a different view).

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Trade Associations Ask OMB to Review EEO-1 Pay Data Report

New PPACA Benefit Summary Rules Clarified

Arbitration Decisions Matter: The NLRB Reverts to Prior Standards on Deferral to Arbitration and Pre-Arbitration Settlements