As we head into a new year, there will be some noticeable changes in employee benefits that you and your clients should be made aware of. The following list encompasses a few of the items you may expect to change:

Required Reporting
Effective January 1, 2020, Medicare Secondary Payer reporting will now include prescription drug coverage. Right now, this is an optional procedure. It is handled by insurance carriers and third-party administrators. Employers should be aware that they may get requests for information from those carriers and third-party administrators. A more detailed explanation can be found here.

PCORI Fee Elimination
The PCORI fee will be eliminated for plan years ending before October 1, 2019. If an employer’s plan year ends between October 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018, then the last PCORI fee for that plan should have been paid by July of 2019. This would generally include plans that have plan years beginning November 1, December 1, or January 1. All other plans will make their last PCORI fee payment by the end of July 2020.

Out-of-Pocket Maximum Increase
In 2020, out-of-pocket maximums will increase to $8,150 for self-only coverage and $16,300 for family coverage. This represents an increase of about 3.20% from last year. HHS requires that the individual out-of-pocket maximum be embedded for each individual within the family OOPM. You can refer to the 2020 Benefit and Payment Parameters found here.

Health Insurance Tax
The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) which has been on a moratorium for 2019, will make a return in 2020 unless Congress acts on pending legislation to delay or repeal. This would result in increased premiums ranging from 2.7% to 4% according to actuarial experts.

Employer Mandate Affordability
The affordability percentage used in the safe harbors will be reduced to 9.78% in 2020. Employers should review their contribution levels to make sure they are within the new percentage requirement.

Individual Mandates in the States
Effective January 1, 2020, California and Vermont will have an individual mandate that will require employer reporting to be completed in 2021. New Jersey, which already has an individual mandate in place, will have to complete the employer reporting in 2020.

Self-Funded Plans
Employers that self-fund may have different benefits that cannot be subject to annual and lifetime limits. Self-insured employers should reevaluate which state plan they use as their benchmark for purposes of determining which benefits cannot be subject to annual and lifetime limits.

2020 Employer Mandate Penalties
As they do each year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calculates the health insurance premium growth rate. That rate is then used to adjust the amount of the ACA employer mandate penalties. Although not finalized, the 2020 employer mandate penalties could be $2,570 for the (a) penalty and $3,860 for the (b) penalty.

There is a lot of pending legislation that Congress could still take up before the recess. Issues pertaining to a Cadillac Tax repeal, transparency in prescription drug prices (H.R.3), redefining a full-time employee, surprise billing, and employer reporting can all be potentially addressed in the coming weeks.

 

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.