Employers Cannot Reimburse Individual Health Care Policies Pretax Basis

In recently posted employer healthcare arrangement FAQs, the IRS warns employers about using employer payment plans to reimburse employees on a pretax basis for health insurance premiums the employee pays on an individual policy (either through a qualified health plan in the Marketplace or outside the Marketplace). As explained in Notice 2013-54, these employer payment plans are considered to be group health plans subject to the market reforms, including the prohibition on annual limits for essential health benefits and the requirement to provide certain preventive care without cost sharing. Notice 2013-54 clarifies that such arrangements cannot be integrated with individual policies to satisfy the market reforms. Consequently, such an arrangement fails to satisfy the market reforms and may be subject to a $100/day excise tax per applicable employee (which is $36,500 per year, per employee). (The term employer payment plan generally does not include an arrangement under which an employee has the option of receiving an after-tax premium reimbursement or taking that amount in cash compensation. Thus, employers can reimburse employees for individual policies on an after-tax basis without violating market reforms.)

The IRS FAQs can be found at

www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Employer-Health-Care-Arrangements