Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting deadlines are approaching.
The IRS has released the final Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C, and 1095-C for calendar year 2020 reporting. Employers are required to report in early 2021 for calendar year 2020.
Who Is Required to Report?
1094-B and 1095-B: These forms are used by insurers, self-insuring employers, and other parties that provide minimum essential health coverage (regardless of size, except for large self-insuring employers) to report information on this coverage to the IRS and to covered individuals. Self-insuring employers with less than 50 full-time or full-time equivalent employees will use these forms to report information on coverage to the IRS and to covered individuals. Self-insuring employers with 50 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees will use the C forms.
1094-C and 1095-C: Applicable large employers (generally those with 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalents or FTEs) will use Forms 1094-C and 1095-C to report information to the IRS and to their employees about their compliance with the employer-shared responsibility provisions (“pay or play”) and the health care coverage they have offered. Employers subject to both reporting provisions (generally self-insured employers with 50 or more full-time employees, including FTEs) will satisfy their reporting obligations using the C Forms. New for 2020: Applicable Large Employers must report the plan’s starting month in Part II of Form 1095-C. This was an optional field in prior reporting years.
Further details on these forms are available from the IRS at the links below:
1094/1095-B 1094/1095-C
1094/1095-B Instructions 1094/1095-C Instructions
Form 1094-B (transmittal) 1094/1095-C (transmittal)
What deadlines apply?
The deadline for furnishing Forms 1095-B and 1095-C to individuals was extended from January 31 to March 2, 2021. Due to this automatic extension, the permissive 30-day extension is not available, and no further extensions may be obtained.
The IRS filings deadlines are March 1, 2021, for paper filings (because February 28 falls on a Sunday) and March 31, 2021, for electronic filings. Filers may extend these deadlines by application to the IRS. Please note that employers submitting more than 250 forms must file electronically through the ACA Information Returns (AIR) program. Those employers should visit the IRS website for further details.
How Is MedCost Assisting Clients? (Reports from MedCost will be available soon.)
MedCost Benefit Services is supporting our clients by providing the health plan-related data needed to complete these forms. ACA reports will be available to clients December 16, 2020. Reports will be posted to the secure Employers portal of our website. To retrieve your report:
- Go to www.MedCost.com.
- Click on “For Employers” in the menu bar near the top.
- Click Log In under “My Account” on the right.
- Login by entering your username and password.
- Choose “Employer Reports.”
- Select the “ACA Reports” folder.
- Choose the current report.
How Do I Use the Reports?
Reports can be opened and saved in Microsoft Excel for ease in manipulating data, i.e., hiding, deleting, moving columns, or sorting to satisfy your needs. Note that the data in columns AN and AO will reflect the most recent coverage period for the calendar year. It will not, however, reflect any prior coverage period if an enrollee had multiple coverage periods within the calendar year. A sample of the report format can be accessed here .
What If I Use a Payroll Vendor for ACA Reporting?
If you are using a payroll vendor or other third party to handle ACA reporting for you, please be sure to review the MedCost report since it will include information about COBRA participants that may not be available in your payroll systems.
Note about Report Content: Reports are generated on December 6, 2020. It is important to note that the report you receive from us is based on information available to MedCost as of the date the report was generated (approximately December 6, 2020). In the event of enrollment status changes occurring between December 6-31, 2020, or in the event of earlier enrollment status changes that were not communicated to MedCost prior to the date the report was generated, you may need to amend the report to include that additional information.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact your Account Manager or the MedCost Compliance Department at [email protected].