ERISA-ACA Compliance

On December 14, 2018, a US District Judge in Texas issued a ruling that the entire ACA was unconstitutional given that the individual mandate contained in it no longer had a tax penalty, the basis of the 2012 US Supreme Court ruling upholding the ACA's constitutionality. 

The IRS has issued Notice 2018-94 extending the due date for the 2018 1095-B and 1095-C forms to be sent to employees from January 31, 2019 until March 4, 2019.

Gary Kushner, a frequent contributor to national and regional media, was quoted in the Washington Post responding to a question about open enrollment timelines.

The IRS has announced the limits for employee benefit plans for 2019.

The employer mandate penalty notices for 2016 have been mailed the week of November 12, 2018. Better known as Letter 226-J, these notices inform employers of a preliminary penalty under IRC Section 4980H.

The IRS has recently sort of, kind of, maybe, in special circumstances enabled employers to make a matching contribution to their 401(k) plan on behalf of eligible plan participants who, instead of contributing to the 401(k), make certain qualifying student loan repayments instead.

When Congress passed the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act in 2003 implementing prescription drug coverage under Medicare, it required all employers that offer prescription drug benefits to provide an annual notice to all Medicare-eligible plan participants.

Gary Kushner, President and CEO of Kushner & Company was interviewed by Workforce Management magazine during the 2018 SHRM Annual Conference in Chicago about the most often missed items in employers' compliance with the ACA.

Starting in 2007, the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA) requires that the IRS release the upcoming year’s new HSA limits prior to June 1st.

In May, 2017, the IRS released the 2018 HSA contributions limits in Rev Proc 2017-37, amongst other HSA-related indexed numbers, stating that the maximum contribution for those in family HDHP coverage would be $6,900.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law in December 2017, created a new business credit for employers that offer paid family and medical leave and which are subject to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).

On March 5, 2018, the IRS published Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) 2018-10. Effective for calendar year 2018, the family contribution limit for HSAs has been lowered to $6,850 from the previously set amount of $6,900.