Happy New Year from the IRS!

On December 27, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service gave employers sponsoring health plans a New Year’s gift. Again this year, the IRS has offered plan sponsors a 30-day automatic extension for the distribution of both 2017 IRS Forms 1095-B and 2017 IRS Forms 1095-C (as applicable) to their employees. Please note that no similar extension is available for filing the forms with the IRS.

The IRS has provided guidance (in IRS Notice 2018-06) and set the new distribution and existing filing deadlines, as follows:

• March 2, 2018 – Deadline for distribution of IRS Form 1095-B (Health Coverage) or IRS Form 1095-C (Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage) to employees.
• February 28, 2018 – Deadline for paper filing of IRS Forms 1094-B/1095-B or 1094-C/1095-C with the IRS. (Note: An employer can only file paper copies if it distributes fewer than 250 1095s on or before March 2, 2018.)
• April 2, 2018 – Deadline for electronic filing of IRS Forms 1094-C/1095-C with IRS. (Note: Employers that distribute 250 or more Form 1095-Cs must file electronically.)

To recap, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its supporting regulations require that all employers offering health benefits to their employees report certain health coverage information to those employees as well as to the IRS. And just like last year, employer’s sponsoring health plans must collect, aggregate and distribute this information via Form 1095.

The forms and codes are pretty much the same as they were on last year’s forms. But as always, MedBen clients who have any questions about preparing or distributing these forms are welcome to contact MedBen Vice President of Compliance Caroline Fraker at 800-851-0907 or cfraker@medben.com.