Regulatory Update

On September 17, 2015 the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) published a final rule that amends its multiemployer regulations to require electronic filing of certain multiemployer notices, starting in 2016. The final rule only affects notices to PBGC and does not involve the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The PBGC will grant case-by-case exemptions to the electronic filing mandate in certain circumstances for filers that demonstrate good cause.

• The PBGC also recently announced the 2016 premium rates for single and multiemployer plans. The per-participant flat premium rate for plan years beginning in 2016 will be $64 for single employer plans and $27 for multiemployer plans.
• On October 9, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service issued Notice 2015-60, which provided that the fees mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) payable to the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will increase from $2.08 to $2.17 per covered life, for plan years ending on or after October 1, 2015 and before October 1, 2016.  The fee is indexed based on increases in the projected per capita amount of national health expenditures.
• As a reminder, the cost for transitional reinsurance fees, which are being assessed to assist insurers to partially offset high-cost enrollees, in and outside the new insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, was determined for 2014 to be $63 per enrollee (participants plus their covered spouse and dependents). For 2015 it will be $44 per enrollee, and for 2016 it will be $27.  However, for 2015 and 2016, the fee will not apply to self-insured, self-administered health plans.  Those plans are exempt from paying the fee for 2015 and 2016. To be considered self-administered, the plan must retain the responsibility for claims payment, adjudication and enrollment. For multiemployer plans, a service provider affiliated with the plan (for example, shared employees who pay, adjudicate and enroll) is not considered to be a third-party administrator.
• For the 2015 benefit year, plans are required to submit their annual enrollment count through https://pay.gov/public/home using the “2015 ACA Transitional Reinsurance Program Annual Enrollment and Contributions Submission Form” no later than Monday, November 16, 2015 (as November 15, 2015, is a Sunday). The “2015 ACA Transitional Reinsurance Program Annual Enrollment and Contributions Submission Form” will auto-calculate the contribution amount owed based on the 2015 uniform contribution rate of $44 per reinsurance covered life. Plan sponsors will have to count enrollment in the plan for the first nine months of 2015, using either the same method as 2014 or any other permissible method.  If the plan sponsor is reporting for itself there is no need to upload supporting documentation with the Form as was required last year.
• Training to assist plan sponsors in completing the 2015 Form can be found on a "Technical Assistance Portal" created by CMS.  The portal (https://www.regtap.info/index.php) serves as an information hub for technical assistance related to marketplace and premium stabilization programs.

By Eric C. Baertsch, CPA, Partner, ebaertsch@legacycpas.com

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