September 23, 2010, has come and gone. As employers prepare for the effective date of the first wave of health care reform changes to affect their group health plans, the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Health and Human Services continue to issue additional guidance on compliance with the new requirements. Some of the new guidance is formal, issued in the form of notices, technical releases and published answers to frequently asked questions. Other additional guidance has been informal, offered in webinars and speeches by agency representatives. The subjects addressed include the new internal and external review requirements; the new nondiscrimination requirements for insured plans (and the steep penalties for failure to comply with them); the exclusion of over-the-counter drugs and medications from flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and health reimbursement arrangements; and implementation issues (including good faith compliance with standards for which official guidance has not been issued, such as definitions of the terms “child” and “essential health benefits”).
We have once again updated our Health Care Reform Q&A in light of the guidance issued through October 31, 2010. Questions and answers affected by additional guidance are marked “updated” or “new” in our Q&A.
The Updated Q&A page can be accessed at:
www.bakerdaniels.com/employer-hcr-qa