The delay in the employer mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will have no effect on workers' access to premium tax credits or individuals' responsibility to have health insurance.
IRS officials sent out that word in IRS Notice 2013-45, a document designed to explain the "transition relief" that the Obama administration will provide for employers trying to comply with the PPACA.
PPACA opponents are fighting to kill or block implementation of the law. If the law takes effect in full and works as drafters expect, it will require large employers to provide affordable "minimum essential coverage" with a minimum value or else pay tax penalties.
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Another provision, the individual "shared responsibility" provision — the individual mandate — calls for many individuals to have a minimum level of coverage or else pay a tax penalty.
The Treasury Department on July 2 surprised many by announcing in a blog a decision to delay enforcement of the employer mandate until 2015.
In the notice sent this week, IRS officials said they expect to propose rules for the employers, insurers and other parties that need to report coverage information "this summer."
The proposed rules will reflect the one-year mandate implementation delay, officials said.
Although the IRS, an arm of the Treasury Department, will put off enforcing the rules, "employers, insurers and other reporting entities are encouraged to voluntarily comply with these information reporting provisions for 2014 (once the information reporting rules have been issued)," officials said.
Because employers and the IRS won't have the reporting rules needed to implement the employer coverage mandate in 2014, employers will not have to comply with the mandate or pay coverage-related penalties in 2014, officials said.
"Real-world testing of reporting systems and plan designs through voluntary compliance for 2014 will contribute to a smoother transition to full implementation for 2015," officials said.
The postponement of implementation of the coverage mandate and employer reporting provisions will not affect individuals' eligibility for the PPACA premium tax credits available through the new health insurance exchanges, officials said.
The tax credits are supposed to be the major vehicle for helping low-income and moderate-income individuals pay for individual and family health coverage.
The transition relief "has no effect on the effective date or application of other Affordable Care Act provisions, such as the premium tax credit under [IRC] Section 36B or the individual shared responsibility provisions under Section 5000A," officials said.
The notice addresses three sections of the Internal Revenue Code created by PPACA: IRC section 6055 and 6056, which cover information reporting, and IRC Section 4980H, which spells out the "employer shared responsibility provisions."
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
