As reported in an earlier Leavitt article, Congress recently passed a spending bill intended to keep the government running. Included in the 2019-2020 packages were several components affecting employee benefits and group health plans – repeals of the Health Insurer Tax (HIT), Cadillac tax, and medical device tax.
Also buried within the Bill is a 10-year extension of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Fee (PCORI). The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) PCORI fee expired with the 2019 plan years, with some plans to remit their fees using Form 720 by July 31, 2020 (see the Leavitt article for more information). The PCORI fee is now set to expire in 2029, barring any additional changes. Plan sponsors of self-funded plans, including relevant components such as Health Reimbursement Arrangements not integrated with an underlying self-funded plan, are responsible for remitting the fee annually by July 31st for the preceding year. For the 2019 plan year, the rate is $2.45 per covered life. Be sure to subscribe to the Leavitt newsletter for announcements of those changing annual rates.