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Prepared for TIC by Mike Ewing, J.D.
Director of Research
United Actuarial Services, Inc.
(317) 580-8659
Fax (317) 580-8651
email: mewing@unitedactuarial.com
© United Actuarial Services, Inc. 2010
2010-26
March 31, 2010
Summary of Selected Provisions
of the Health Care Reform Bills
In this Client Bulletin
we will take a look at selected provisions of the health care
reform bills passed by Congress and signed into law by the President over the past
week, focusing on provisions affecting self-insured multiemployer health plans. In
another issue, we will take a look at the effect of the law on employers.
To recap, on
Sunday March 21, 2010, the United States House of Representatives
passed H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that was
previously passed by the Senate on December 24, 2009. In addition, the House
also passed a reconciliation bill (H.R. 4872) aimed at tweaking the just passed H.R.
3950. After some minor changes related to Pell grants for low-income students,
this reconciliation bill was passed by the Senate and repassed by the House. Both
bills were signed into law by the President.
That was the easy part. The harder part is to
determine exactly what the laws
mean and when they are effective. This problem is related to the fact the law is
lengthy, complex and uses circular definitions, making it hard to discern the exact
meaning of certain parts of the law. Another confusing notion is that upon reading
the text of the bills, they are aimed at amending the Public Health Service Act
(PHSA). This appears to be confusing, as one would expect the laws to be aimed at
amending the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the
Internal Revenue Code (Code).
But, like many things in the laws, its effect on ERISA and the Code
was hidden
away in Sections 1562(e) and (f) of the PPACA. Subsection (e) adds a new ERISA
Section 715 that incorporates by reference the provisions of part A of the Title
XXVII PHSA, as amended by the PPACA, into ERISA. Subsection (f) does the same
for the Code. Both Sections contain certain qualifiers, including the
fact that the
PPACA
trumps any ERISA
or Code
provisions that contradict the PPACA. PPACA
Sections 1562(e) and (f) are available by “clicking here.” Links to the PPACA, the
reconciliation bill and other helpful resources are available at the end of this Client
Bulletin.
CLIENT BULLETIN