ERIC News Release

For Immediate Release:   November 1, 2011

Washington, D.C. – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) yesterday submitted two comment letters on proposed regulations under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).  The first letter addresses a proposed regulation to implement provisions relating to how the exchanges interact with employers to determine whether an individual is eligible to purchase subsidized health coverage through an exchange.  The second letter addresses a proposed safe harbor for determining the affordability of employer-sponsored coverage for purposes of the shared-responsibility provisions of the ACA. 

In the letter on reporting to the exchanges, ERIC responds to the government's proposal of two methods for verifying whether employer-sponsored coverage is affordable to an employee and meets the minimum required value under the ACA.  The first method under consideration would be the use of a template that employers would complete and give to employees to provide the required information.  The second method would be the use of a central database, with data populated by employers, that exchanges would consult to determine an individual's eligibility to buy a subsidized plan on an exchange. 

ERIC President Mark Ugoretz warned that, “large employers are particularly concerned that a mechanism be found to avoid excessive requests from the exchanges for information and data with respect to employees who may be eligible to purchase coverage through an exchange.”  Further, he noted, “it is important that the government make both methods available to employers and allow employers to choose which method to use.” 

ERIC also recommends that the mechanism through which employers submit required information to the central database should be compatible with the reporting of much of the same information that will be required of employers under section 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code.

SAFE HARBOR

In the letter on the affordability safe harbor, ERIC addresses the rule proposed by the government that, to assess whether the health coverage they offer to their employees is "affordable" for purposes of avoiding the employer penalty under the ACA, the employer may measure affordability on the basis of W-2 income rather than household income.   

ERIC commends the IRS for its willingness to offer this safe harbor, but urges that sponsors also be permitted to use the safe harbor on a prospective basis by using a reasonable projection of an employee’s current wages to set the employee’s contributions for the following year at a level that would meet the affordability requirements.   

ERIC argues that, to give employers an opportunity to ascertain whether they are offering affordable coverage to their employees in order to avoid the shared responsibility penalty, as the Notice provides, the safe harbor should provide employers certainty regarding whether they will satisfy the safe harbor in advance of the calendar year. 

“Employers should be permitted to satisfy the safe harbor prospectively by using a reasonable projection of an employee’s current wages to set the employee’s contributions for the following year at a level that would meet the affordability requirements,” the letter contends. 

Links to ERIC’s comment letters appear below.

ERIC Comments on Employer Interaction with Exchanges

ERIC Comments on Affordability Safe Harbor 

 

###

 

For more information:

Ted Godbout
Director, Communications
The ERISA Industry Committee
1400 L Street, NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 789-1400 
tgodbout@eric.org
www.eric.org

__________________________________________________________________________

The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) is a non-profit association committed to representing the advancement of the employee retirement, health, and compensation plans of America's largest employers.  ERIC's members provide benchmark retirement, health care coverage, compensation, and other economic security benefits directly to tens of millions of active and retired workers and their families.  ERIC has a strong interest in proposals affecting its members' ability to deliver those benefits, their cost and their effectiveness, as well as the role of those benefits in the American economy.