On Nov. 19, 2018, the IRS released IRS Notice 2018-88, which provides guidance on the proposed regulations related to HRAs. The regulations, which were released Oct. 23, 2018, provide for two separate arrangements called individual coverage HRAs (ICHRAs) and excepted benefit HRAs. The new notice focuses on ICHRAs, which are employer-sponsored HRAs integrated with individual health insurance policies. The notice specifically discusses how the IRC Section 105, employer mandate and premium tax eligibility rules apply to ICHRAs.
IRC Section 105 generally requires employer contributions to be uniform for all participants. Otherwise, the HRA is at risk for discrimination. The Department of the Treasury and IRS anticipate releasing guidance providing that employer ICHRA contributions may vary by class as long as all participants in a class receive uniform contributions.
IRC Section 105 also prohibits the variance of contributions based on age. However, the cost of individual health coverage increases with age. It is reasonable that older employees may require increased ICHRA contributions in order to pay for the increased premium cost. To resolve this issue, the Treasury and IRS expect to issue future guidance permitting employer contributions to increase based on participant age.
The employer mandate requires an applicable large employer (or ALE, an employer with 50 or more full-time employees including equivalents) to offer minimum essential employer-sponsored coverage to at least 95 percent of full-time employees (known as Penalty A). If an ALE offers an ICHRA to at least 95 percent of full-time employees, it will comply with Penalty A.
As a reminder, individuals are not eligible for a premium tax credit (PTC) for any month they are covered by an employer-sponsored plan, which includes an HRA. Thus, any participants covered by an ICHRA will not be eligible for a PTC.
Further, individuals are not eligible for a PTC if they are eligible for an employer-sponsored plan that is affordable and meets minimum value. The notice provides guidance on how affordability will be calculated on an ICHRA. The employee’s required contribution is the premium amount for self-only coverage under the lowest cost silver plan offered by the Exchange for the rating area in which the employee resides minus the employer’s ICHRA contribution.
The Treasury and IRS recognize the burden on an employer to determine affordability for each individual employee, considering separate rating areas. For this reason, they anticipate proposing a location safe harbor that would permit an employer to base affordability on the cost of coverage in the worksite’s rating area (as opposed to each employee’s residential location).
Additionally, because of the late date on which individual policy premium rates are typically released each year, the Treasury and IRS are requesting comments related to a safe harbor that would permit an employer to base affordability on the previous year’s cost of exchange coverage.
An ICHRA that is determined to be affordable would also be considered to provide minimum value. Thus, an employee who is offered coverage in an affordable ICHRA would not be eligible for a PTC, even if they waived coverage.
Comments on the proposed guidance are due by Dec. 28, 2018.
Source: NFP BenefitPartners
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