CMS Announces PPACA Transitional Reinsurance Fee Amount for 2016; Formalizes In-Patient Hospitalization Requirement for Minimum Value Plans

NBCH thanks the American Benefits Council for the information provided in this post.

On November 21, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released proposed regulations in the form of the 2016 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters. The proposed regulations address a number of issues, including the transitional reinsurance program (TRP) fee and minimum value requirements that were the subject of some recent attention and controversy.

Transitional Reinsurance Program Fee
Under Section 1341 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), during the first three years that state health insurance exchanges are operational (2014 through 2016), health insurance issuers and plan administrators (on behalf of self-insured group health plans) will be assessed a per-enrollee fee to finance a three-year transitional reinsurance program. The contribution rate for 2015 is $44 per covered life; it was $63 per covered life for 2014.

The proposed regulations set the TRP fee at $27 per enrollee for the 2016 benefit year. The regulations also include additional information on the exception for certain self-administered, self-insured group health plans, clarifications regarding certain counting methods, and guidance regarding the deadline for satisfying reporting requirements where the reporting date does not fall on a business day. Specifically: 

• Self-administered, self-insured plan exception: For the 2015 and 2016 benefit years, a "covered entity" does not include qualifying self-administered, self-insured group health plans. In the preamble to the 2015 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters, HHS indicated that it considered a third party administrator to be an entity that is not under common ownership or control with the self-insured group health plan or its plan sponsor. The preamble to the proposed regulations states that principles similar to the controlled group rules of Code sections 414(b) and (c) would apply for purposes of determining whether a third-party administrator is under common ownership or control with a plan or its plan sponsor.
  
• Clarification to Snapshot Count and Snapshot Factor Counting Methods: The proposed regulations clarify the application of the snapshot count and snapshot factor counting methods to a health insurance plan or coverage that is established or terminated, or that changes funding mechanisms, in the middle of a quarter. The proposed regulations provide that, if the plan or coverage in question had enrollees on any day during a quarter and if the contributing entity uses either the snapshot count or snapshot factor method, it must choose a set of counting dates for the counting period such that the plan or coverage has enrollees on each of the dates, if possible. However, the enrollment count for a date during a quarter in which the plan or coverage was in existence for only part of the quarter can be reduced by a factor reflecting the amount of time during the quarter for which the plan or coverage was not in existence.
  
• Clarification to Reporting Deadlines: The proposed regulations would require a contributing entity to submit its annual enrollment count for the applicable benefit year to HHS no later than November 15 of benefit year 2014, 2015, or 2016, or, if such date is not a business day, the next business day. 

In-Patient Hospitalization Requirement for Minimum Value Plans
The proposed regulations formalize guidance provided in IRS Notice 2014-69 (released on November 4) addressing the glitch in the HHS minimum value (MV) calculator that generated a fair amount of media attention earlier this year. The calculator is intended to be used to determine whether an employer-sponsored plan provides 60 percent minimum value. According to HHS and Treasury, the online MV calculator was improperly qualifying certain group health plan benefit designs that do not provide coverage for in-patient hospitalization services.

The proposed regulations formalize the guidance provided in Notice 2014-69. The proposed regulations would require that, in order to satisfy minimum value, an employer-sponsored plan must provide substantial coverage of both in-patient hospital services and physician services. The proposed regulations would apply to employer-sponsored plans, including plans that are in the middle of a plan year, immediately on the effective date of the final regulations. However, the proposed regulations provide that the final regulations will not apply before the end of the plan year for plans that, before November 4, 2014, entered into a binding written commitment to adopt, or began enrolling employees into, the plan, so long as that plan year begins no later than March 1, 2015.