The Affordable Care Act requires any person or organization that provides minimum essential coverage, including employers that provide self-insured group health plans, to report this coverage to the IRS and furnish statements to the covered individuals.
These reporting requirements affect:
- Health insurance issuers or carriers
- The executive department or agency of a governmental unit that provides coverage under a government-sponsored program
- Plan sponsors of self-insured group health plan coverage
- Sponsors of coverage that the Department of Health and Human Services has designated as minimum essential coverage
For purposes of reporting by applicable large employers, minimum essential coverage means coverage under an employer-sponsored plan.
Minimum essential coverage does not include fixed indemnity coverage, life insurance or dental or vision coverage.
Minimum essential coverage does include:
Government-sponsored programs
- Medicare part A, most Medicaid programs, CHIP, most TRICARE, most VA programs, Peace Corps, DOD Non-appropriated Fund Program
Employer sponsored coverage
- In general, any plan that is a group health plan under ERISA, which includes both insured and self-insured health plans. Importantly, employer plans that cover solely excepted benefits, such as stand-alone vision or dental plans, are not MEC
Individual market coverage
- Includes qualified health plans enrolled in through the federally facilitated and state-based marketplaces and most health insurance purchased individually and directly from an insurance company
Grandfathered plans
- Generally, any plan that existed before the ACA became effective and has not changed
Miscellaneous MEC
- Other health benefits coverage recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services as MEC
For more information, see our Questions and Answers on Information Reporting by Health Coverage Providers on IRS.gov/aca.
Back to Top
This message brought to you by: Cormier & Rea, Inc. Sturbridge MA. Providers of Income tax planning and preparation and financial planning. For more information about this or any other issues regarding income tax planning or preparation or financial planning, feel free to contact us. Like Cormier & Rea, Inc. on Facebook for timely updates.