June 2015 Health Care Reform

June 2015 Health Care Reform

by Clarke & Company Benefits Posted on: June 22, 2015Categories: HR & Compliance   

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires health insurance issuers and sponsors of self-insured health plans to pay Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute fees (PCORI fees). The fees are reported and paid annually using IRS Form 720 (Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return).

PCORI fees will be due by July 31, 2015, for plan years ending in 2014. IRS instructions for filing form 720, which were revised in January 2015, include information on reporting and paying the PCORI fees.

Overview of the PCORI Fee

The ACA created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help patients, clinicians, payers and the public make informed health decisions by advancing comparative effectiveness research. The Institute’s research is funded, in part, through fees paid by health insurance issuers and self-insured health plan sponsors. These fees are widely known as PCORI fees, although they may also be called PCOR fees or comparative effectiveness research (CER) fees.

The PCORI fees apply for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012, but do not apply for plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2019. For calendar year plans, the fees will be effective for the 2012 through 2018 plan years. Issuers and plan sponsors will be required to pay the PCORI fees annually on IRS Form 720 by July 31 of each year. It will generally cover plan years that end during the preceding calendar year. Thus, the deadline for filing Form 720 is July 31, 2015, for plan years ending in 2014.

 

Additional Resources-Legislative Briefs

Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Fees Overview (PCORI)

HCR Reporting & Paying the PCORI Fees