Dive Brief:
- Employers could be facing a combined total of $31 billion in penalties for violating the Affordable Care Act in 2016, says Accenture. This figure is 50% higher than previous estimates.
- Organizations with at least 50 employees must provide healthcare coverage for their workers. Those that don’t are violating the ACA. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that violators could be liable for $21 billion in penalties.
- Accenture, however, says it has identified a new cross-section of employers called, “unintentionally non-compliant.” These employers provide employee health plans that comply with the ACA, but don’t meet the IRS’s reporting standard to prove that they’re in compliance. They could be liable for $10 billion in penalties this year.
Dive Insight:
Health and Human Services, the IRS and other government agencies have information specifically for businesses that have compliance questions about laws, regulations and procedures. Companies can find out if they’re complying with laws and what they should do if they’re not before penalties are charged.
It will be interesting to see which of these very same regulations might be rolled back as a new administration moves into the White House next year. Observers say we shouldn't expect a full repeal, but the general consensus seems to be that several changes to the US healthcare system are in store, an often cited example being the repeal of the Cadillac Tax.