Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter

December 31, 2019

BenefitsLink.com logo
EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com logo
Search   ·   Past Issues   ·   Get Message Boards Digest   ·   Get Retirement News

Job Openings


Webcasts, Conferences


Discussions

New Topics on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

New Comments and Topics

All Topics, Grouped by Forum


This Newsletter:
Subscribe Now

BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter:
Subscribe Now

Message Boards Digest:
Subscribe Now


[Guidance Overview]

Gathering Your Health Coverage Documentation for the Tax Filing Season

"Beginning in tax year 2019, Form 1040 will not have the 'full-year health care coverage or exempt' box and Form 8965, Health Coverage Exemptions, will no longer be used. You need not make a shared responsibility payment or file Form 8965, Health Coverage Exemptions, with your tax return if you don't have minimum essential coverage for part or all of 2019. You may receive multiple information forms that you can use to complete your tax return and will keep with your tax records."

Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

[Guidance Overview]

San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance Top-Off Payments Due February 29

"The San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance (HCSO) requires covered employers to pay a certain amount -- an Expenditure -- toward their covered employees' health care costs.... If a covered employer does not meet the required Expenditure under a pay-as-you-go plan, it must use another permissible method -- called a 'top-off' payment -- to make up the shortfall.... For 2019 Expenditures, the due date is no later than February 29, 2020."

EPIC

2019's Biggest Health Policy Controversies

"[1] Surprising inaction on surprise billing ... [2] The price of transparency ... [3] CMS gives providers déjà vu ... [4] More Medicaid mayhem ... [5] The ACA's fate remains in doubt."

FierceHealthcare

The State of Medical Debt in the United States

"41% reported that they had at one point not been able to afford a medical bill. 30% currently had a medical bill they could not pay.... 11% had either filed or considered filing for bankruptcy to get out from under their medical debt.... 51% of those surveyed said that at some point in their life, they had avoided seeking medical care due to their lack of ability to pay."

HealthPocket

Impact on Health and Welfare Plans in the New Year Based on the Fifth Circuit's ACA Ruling and the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act

"Until the district court decides the case on remand (or, if earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court decides to grant review and decides the case), all of the provisions of the ACA other than the individual mandate remain enforceable and employers and plan sponsors should continue to comply with the ACA.... Even if the courts ultimately determine that the individual mandate is severable from other parts of the ACA, significant revenue sources designed to fund the ACA were completely repealed in the Act[.]"

Vorys

Benefits in General

[Official Guidance]

Text of IRS Notice 2020-05: 2020 Standard Mileage Rates (PDF)

"The standard mileage rate for transportation or travel expenses is 57.5 cents per mile for all miles of business use ... The standard mileage rate is 14 cents per mile for use of an automobile in rendering gratuitous services to a charitable organization under Section 170.... The standard mileage rate is 17 cents per mile for use of an automobile: [1] for medical care described in Section 213; or [2] as part of a move for which the expenses are deductible under Section 217(g).... For automobiles a taxpayer uses for business purposes, the portion of the business standard mileage rate treated as depreciation is 24 cents per mile for 2016, 25 cents per mile for 2017, 25 cents per mile for 2018, 26 cents per mile for 2019, and 27 cents per mile for 2020."

Internal Revenue Service [IRS]

Selected Discussions
on the BenefitsLink Message Boards

Must File Form 8822-B to Register a Change in Plan Name or Administrator's Address?

"I don't know about anyone else, but I never knew about this form until I read Ilene Ferenczy's SECURE Act review: 'Last but not least, a little-known provision of the Code requires plan administrators to file Form 8822-B to register a change in plan name or plan administrator name/address. The penalty for nonfiling of that form will increase from $1 per day to $10, up to a maximum that is going up from $1,000 to $10,000.' "

BenefitsLink Message Boards

Most Popular Items in the Previous Issue

BenefitsLink.com, Inc.
1298 Minnesota Avenue, Suite H
Winter Park, Florida 32789
(407) 644-4146

Lois Baker, J.D., President
David Rhett Baker, J.D., Editor and Publisher
Holly Horton, Business Manager

Article submission: Online form

BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter, ISSN no. 1536-9595. Copyright 2019 BenefitsLink.com, Inc. All materials contained in this newsletter are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of BenefitsLink.com, Inc., or in the case of third party materials, the owner of those materials. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notices from copies of the content.

Links to web sites other than BenefitsLink.com and EmployeeBenefitsJobs.com are offered as a service to our readers; we were not involved in their production and are not responsible for their content.

Unsubscribe  |   Change Email Address  |   Privacy Policy