If you offer your employees health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), you know better than I that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) increased your administrative duties. But there’s good news, at least for some of you! The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a reminder that HRAs established before Sept. 23, 2010 will not have to file annual forms in order to be granted an annual limit waiver for plan years beginning on or after that date but before Jan. 1, 2014.
The PPACA amended the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) to forbid most group health plans and group or individual health insurance issuers with annual limits from imposing lifetime or annual limits on the dollar value of essential health benefits.
But the PPACA does allow restricted annual limits regarding essential health benefits for plan years that begin before Jan. 1, 2014. Interim final regulations (IFR) the HHS issued last year allow the HHS Secretary to waive these restricted annual limits if compliance with the IFR would significantly reduce access to benefits or significantly increase premiums.
HHS’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) notes that all HRAs limit the amount that can be spent and it believes that those limits would always be less than the applicable restricted annual limit amounts. It also says applying the restrictions on annual limits to HRAs would make them less available.
The CCIIO has exempted HRAs in existence before Sept. 23, 2010 from having to apply individually for an annual limit waiver for plan years that start on or after that date but before Jan. 1, 2014. The IFR says that when an HRA is integrated with other health coverage, if the other coverage alone would meet the requirements of the PHSA amendment, the amendment does not apply to the HRA.
Any employer or plan administrator that wants to apply for a waiver or a waiver extension must make sure the CCIIO receives them by Sept. 22, 2011.
But the relief only goes so far! Even HRAs that are exempt from applying for anstill have to comply with the requirements regarding record retention and annual notices provided to participants and subscribers.
Instructions on these requirements is available here under the heading “Health Market Reforms, Annual Limits, Application Information.”