Health Care Law Tax Provisions: IRS Recorded Webinars for Employers and Coverage Providers

Employers and health coverage providers now have access to recorded webinars from IRS about the Affordable Care Act’s employer provisions and related tax requirements. If you are a business owner, tax manager, employee benefits manager, or health coverage provider, you can access and review these videos anytime to better understand how the health care law may affect your organization.

Each of the following ACA videos on the IRS Video Portal provides about 40 minutes of detailed information on the specific tax provision mentioned in the title.

Employer Shared Responsibility Provision (47 minutes)

Learn about determining applicable large employer status, payments, and transition relief for 2015.

Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage Information Reporting Requirements for Applicable Large Employers (37 minutes)

Learn about employer-sponsored health coverage information reporting requirements for applicable large employers, including:

• who is required to report
• what information the law requires you to report
• how to complete the required forms

Information Reporting Requirements for Providers of Minimum Essential Coverage (35 minutes) 

Learn about the information reporting requirements for providers of minimum essential coverage, including employers that provide self-insured coverage.  Learn about

• who is required to report
• what information the law requires you to report
• how to complete the required forms

View the recorded webinars in the IRS Video Portal using one of the following tabs: Businesses, Tax Professionals, Governments and Non-Profits. After clicking on one of these tabs, simply select “Affordable Care Act” from the list of topics on the left side of the screen, and you will see a list of recordings about these and other ACA topics. 

In addition to videos about the tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act on the IRS Video Portal, there is a wide range of videos on other tax topics for individuals, businesses and tax professionals. 

For more information about the Affordable Care Act visit IRS.gov/aca.

Moving? You may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period

You may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period

The end of Summer marks one of the most popular season for moving. But there are some things you can’t pack in boxes — like the peace of mind you get from having health insurance. 

If you’re moving, whether out of state or within your current state, you may be able to getMarketplace health insurance coverage with a Special Enrollment Period. This means you can enroll in or change your plan outside the annual Open Enrollment Period. In most cases, you’ll have 60 days from your move date to enroll in new coverage or change your plan.

Depending on where you move, you may have new options, prices, and savings available to you.

Learn more about moving and Marketplace coverage.

The HealthCare.gov Team

Guide to Providing Effective Communication and Language Assistance Services

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health has create the Guide to Providing Effective Communication and Language Assistance Services. This is a tool to help you and your organization facilitate communication with the culturally and linguistically diverse individuals receiving care and services from your organization, including those with limited English proficiency (LEP). Mutual understanding helps ensure the provision of safe, quality health care.

The Guide covers strategies for communicating in a way that considers the cultural, health literacy, and language needs of your patients and their families. It is designed for health care providers, administrators, and executives who work across a broad spectrum of health care organizations. Two tracks of the Guide are available:

• One is tailored to health care administrators, with information on planning, implementing, and evaluating effective communication and language assistance services.

• One is tailored to health care providers (or those providing direct care and services), with information on cross-cultural communication skills, working with an interpreter, and more.

Launched in June, this updated Guide replaces our existing communication e-resource, A Patient-Centered Guide to Implementing Language Access Services.

For more information or to access the Guide, please visit https://hclsig.ThinkCulturalHealth.hhs.gov.

Data about 2015 Special Enrollment Period Report Snapshot – February 23 – June 30, 2015

The next open enrollment period for Marketplace coverage begins on November 1, 2015 for coverage starting on January 1, 2016. Some people can sign up for health coverage outside of open enrollment, before November 1, because they qualify for a special enrollment period (SEP). A consumer can qualify for a SEP for such circumstances as loss of health coverage, losing Medicaid eligibility, changes in family status (for example, marriage or birth of a child), or other exceptional circumstances.

This snapshot provides information about consumers who selected a plan between February 23 and June 30, 2015 through the HealthCare.gov platform, which includes 37 states with Federally Facilitated Marketplaces, State Partnership Marketplaces, and supported State-Based Marketplaces.

Nearly 950,000 new consumers selected a plan through the HealthCare.gov platform using a SEP between February 23 and June 30, 2015.

“Life changes are often impossible to predict, but access to affordable and quality health care coverage should never be. So far this year, nearly 950,000 people have gained the peace of mind that comes with access to coverage by taking advantage of a special enrollment period, providing us with further evidence that the Health Insurance Marketplace is working for America’s families,” said Kevin Counihan, CEO of the Health Insurance Marketplace. “We want people to know that if they lose a job, get married, have a baby, or experience other life changes, we’re here to help them find coverage they can afford.”

Today’s Special Enrollment Period Snapshot only reflects plan selection activity and, as such, does not capture whether consumers effectuated their enrollment and continued paying for health insurance coverage following the plan selection.

Overall SEP Activity

Between February 23 and June 30, 2015, about 944,000 new consumers made plan selections through HealthCare.gov using a SEP. Eighty-four percent of plan selections occurred via three types of SEPs: 50 percent of plan selections occurred via SEPs for the loss of health coverage or “minimum essential coverage”, 19 percent occurred via SEPs for being determined ineligible for Medicaid, and 15 percent were as a result of tax season SEP (Table 1). The remaining 16 percent of plan selections were attributable to other types of SEPs (see glossary).

States info, graphic, and snapshot can be found at: https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2015-Fact-sheets-items/2015-08-13.html

Updated Interactive Enrollment Map With New Demographic Data

Wondering how many people got financial help to get covered in your county? Interested in finding out the income levels, ages, and races/ethnicities of 2015 marketplace enrollees at the local level? Based on just-released federal stats, our data team created an interactive map displaying plan selections -- and demographic profiles of who signed up -- by county for the 37 HealthCare.gov states. This amount of data for individual counties is unprecedented, and provides a new window on enrollment trends in HealthCare​.gov states.

OHD Funding Opportunity

The Utah Department of Health Office of Health Disparities is releasing a revised Request for Proposal (RFP) to raise awareness of birth outcomes and infant mortality among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander communities in Utah.

Funding Cycle: September 15, 2015 to June 30, 2016

New Release Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Application due date: 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

5:00 p.m. MDT

Go to http://www.health.utah.gov/disparities/data/RevisedRFPBirthOutcomesPI.pdf to view the RFP.

Contact Dulce Díez at ddiez@utah.gov or Brittney Okada at bokada@utah.gov with further questions.  

Free Health Fair at the Asian Association

Asian Association of UtahRefugee Immigrant Center

When: August 15, 2015 10 am to 2 pm

Where: 155 S 300 W, Salt Lake City

Free Screenings

Vision

Cholesterol

Blood pressure

and more!

Vaccinations Available

All attendees will receive a free bag of produce