
She and agency principal Jim McDonnell have been leading the charge at Ford to not only understand what the bill – which represents the most significant regulatory overhaul of the U.S. Soon she’ll be an official expert – one training class away from adding the “Health Care Reform Consultant” designation to her list of credentials – and quite possibly the only one in the area. “I’ve studied it way more than the average person,” says Witkop, a 27-year-veteran of the insurance industry and agent with Ford Insurance in Traverse City. Both Jim and Laverna are career insurance agents with more than 54 years of combined experience.Laverna Witkop hasn’t read every word of the 2,300 or so pages of the Affordable Care Act, but she’s come darn close.
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If you have any questions regarding PPACA and how it affects your organization, please feel free to contact Jim McDonnell or Laverna Witkop at the Ford Insurance Agency at 23. This should help lower or eliminate the risk of loss of any unused account dollars. The IRS has also stated in IRS 2012-40 that it is considering changing the "use it or lose it" rule to provide relief to employees.
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If both spouses each have an FSA, each can fund his/her health FSA to the full amount of the cap. However, the cap will still apply effective Jan. Employers have until the end of 2014 to amend their plan documents. For plans that include the 21⁄2 month grace period, the amounts carried over during the grace period do not count towards the cap. The IRS has issued Notice 2012-40 to clarify how this cap will work. – Third, PPACA has stipulated a new limit of $2,500 on health Flexible Spending Accounts. Reportable items include but are not limited to major medical insurance plans health FSA values for the year in excess of the employee's cafeteria plan salary reductions and hospital indemnity or specific illness plans paid on an after-tax basis. That being said, some employers may choose to test their payroll systems and report such amounts. However, employers who issued fewer than 250 W-2s for the tax year 2011 are excused from mandatory reporting. This requirement applies to the 2012 tax year. – Second, beginning last month, employers must report amounts spent on certain health plan items. If you are an employer with fewer than 50 full time equivalents (FTEs), there is no penalty at all under the Employer Responsibility "Pay or Play" provisions of PPACA.

Employers often do not know many of the complexities contained in the Act.

–ğirst, many small employers may be making uninformed decisions regarding health care reform. Now that PPACA is the law of the land, insurance carriers and the various states are creating their insurance exchanges and product offerings in order to be compliant with the provisions of the law.įor the majority of employers in our northern Michigan region, which usually employ fewer than 50 employees, here are a few things to keep in mind: As then-Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D) attempted to elucidate, "We have to pass the bill in order to know what is in the bill." The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has left our legislators, employers and the general public in a fog of confusion.
