Romney says certain PPACA provisions should remain

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney says that while he would seek to repeal the health care reform law if he were elected, he could keep at least two politically popular provisions.


“I’m not getting rid of all of health care reform. Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Mr. Romney said during NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Specifically, Mr. Romney said he would continue the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provision that bans health care plans from denying coverage of pre-existing medical conditions.In addition, Mr. Romney said he supports continuing and perhaps even expanding a provision that requires health care plans to provide coverage of employees’ adult children up to age 26.Mr. Romney said he would want “to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might be.

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Safe Harbor for Determining Full Time Employees for PPACA

Many employers have been questioning what the "look back" period will be for determining who is considered a full time employee and therefore must be offered coverage under the PPACA legislaton. On Friday, August 31st the IRS issued guidance on this topic. Click here to see the guidance in full.

Below is an excerpt from the guidance defining the safe harbor for determining full time status for "ongoing" employees:

An “ongoing employee” is generally an employee who has been employed by the

employer for at least one complete standard measurement period. As stated in Notice
2011-36, different rules may apply to employees who move into full-time status during
the year. Additional rules regarding the treatment of employees who experience a
change in employment status are expected to be included in upcoming regulations.

Under the safe harbor method for ongoing employees, an employer determines
each ongoing employee’s full-time status by looking back at the standard measurement
period (a defined time period of not less than three but not more than 12 consecutive
calendar months, as chosen by the employer). The employer has the flexibility to
determine the months in which the standard measurement period starts and ends,
provided that the determination must be made on a uniform and consistent basis for all
employees in the same category. (See below in this section for permissible categories.)

For example, if an employer chose a standard measurement period of 12 months, the
employer could choose to make it the calendar year, a non-calendar plan year, or a
different 12-month period, such as one that ends shortly before the start of the plan’s
annual open enrollment season. If the employer determines that an employee
averaged at least 30 hours per week during the standard measurement period, then the
employer treats the employee as a full-time employee during a subsequent “stability
period”, regardless of the employee’s number of hours of service during the stability
period, so long as he or she remained an employee.

For an employee whom the employer determines to be a full-time employee
during the standard measurement period, the stability period would be a period of at
least six consecutive calendar months that is no shorter in duration than the standard
measurement period and that begins after the standard measurement period (and any
applicable administrative period, as discussed in section III.B, below). If the employer
determines that the employee did not work full-time during the standard measurement
period, the employer would be permitted to treat the employee as not a full-time
employee during the stability period that follows, but is not longer than, the standard
measurement period.

Click here to see the guidance in full.