By: Erin M. Hussey, Esq.
On October 23rd, the Department of Labor (“DOL”), Department of the Treasury (“Treasury Department”), and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) issued proposed regulations on health reimbursement arrangements (“HRAs”). An HRA is a tax-free account coordinated with a group health plan, funded by the employer that reimburses employees for health care costs.
The goal of these proposed rules is to provide more options for affordable healthcare. Specifically, these proposed rules allow integrating an HRA with individual health coverage, provided that certain conditions are met. In sum, the following details the Departments’ various proposed rules:
“. . . the [Treasury Department] and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) propose rules regarding premium tax credit (PTC) eligibility for individuals offered coverage under an HRA integrated with individual health insurance coverage. In addition, the [DOL] proposes a clarification to provide plan sponsors with assurance that the individual health insurance coverage the premiums of which are reimbursed by an HRA or a qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangement (QSEHRA) does not become part of an ERISA plan, provided certain conditions are met. Finally, [HHS] proposes rules that would provide a special enrollment period in the individual market for individuals who gain access to an HRA integrated with individual health insurance coverage or who are provided a QSEHRA.”
Under current IRS guidance via IRS Notice 2013-54 (“Notice”), HRAs fail to satisfy the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) prohibition on annual dollar limits and the ACA preventive care requirements unless they are coordinated with a group health plan that satisfies those ACA provisions. The Notice further clarifies that an HRA for active employees (otherwise called a stand-alone HRA) cannot be integrated with individual market coverage, regardless of the coverage being obtained inside or outside of the exchange. However, the above-noted newly proposed HRA regulations would allow employees with HRAs to shop for coverage in the individual market. This would allow small employers and businesses to utilize this potentially cheaper option to pay for their employees’ health coverage. Additionally, the proposed rules indicate that if an applicable large employer (“ALE”) subject to the Employer Mandate utilizes their HRA to pay for their employees’ individual health insurance premiums on the marketplace, it would be considered an offer of coverage to satisfy the Employer Mandate.
It is important to keep in mind that prior to these proposed regulations, the 21st Century Cures Act, effective January 1, 2017, allows businesses with fewer than 50 employees to reimburse their workers for out-of-pocket healthcare costs and premiums on the individual market, otherwise known as Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (“QSEHRAs”). Small business owners must meet two requirements before becoming eligible to offer QSEHRAs to employees: (1) the small business owners do not offer a group health plan to their employees; and (2) the small business owners must have fewer than 50 full-time employees, as defined in IRC 4980H(c)(2) (the Employer Mandate). QSEHRAs can reimburse premiums for ACA exchange plans, individual policies and Medicare supplemental policies. This stems the obvious question—how are QSEHRAs any different from the new HRA proposed rules? One difference is that QSEHRAs only apply to businesses with fewer than 50 employees, whereas the proposed rules apply to any size employer. Additionally, the newly proposed rules allow a plan sponsor to offer any size HRA to be integrated with individual health insurance coverage and offer a traditional group health plan, but the plan sponsor of a QSEHRA cannot offer a group health plan at all.
As detailed above, under the proposed rules an employer could offer a traditional group health plan in addition to the HRA integrated with individual health insurance. However, the concern is that adverse selection would result and unhealthy employees would be placed into HRAs so that the traditional group health plans do not take on as much risk. In order to avoid this health factor discrimination, the rules allow a form of discrimination in accordance with the different “classes” of employees when determining which classes of employees will be offered the HRA integrated with individual health insurance coverage and which will be offered the traditional group health plan (if the employer provides both). These classes are (1) full-time employees; (2) part-time employees; (3) seasonal employees; (4) employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement; (5) employees who have not satisfied a waiting period for coverage; (6) employees who have not attained age 25 prior to the beginning of the plan year; (7) non-resident aliens with no U.S. based income; and (8) employees whose primary site of employment is in the same rating area. As the proposed rules indicate “a plan sponsor may offer an HRA integrated with individual health insurance coverage to a class of employees only if the plan sponsor does not also offer a traditional group health plan to the same class of employees.” For example, the employer could offer only the traditional group health plan to full-time employees and only the HRA integrated with individual health insurance to part-time employees, but they cannot be offered both.
Lastly, another important component of these proposed rules is that they would establish excepted benefit HRAs. Excepted benefits include vision, dental, etc. Under current HRA guidance, HRAs can only pay for medical expenses, but under these newly proposed rules an HRA paired with a group health plan could pay up to $1800/year for “excepted benefits” such as an individual’s dental or vision premiums. However, there are conditions for an excepted benefit HRA outlined in the proposed regulations.
The Departments are asking for comments on all aspects of the proposed rules by December 28th. It will be interesting to see how much “opportunity” commentators believe this may bring for individuals seeking more affordable healthcare.