HIPAA – Heatlh Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996
CLICK HERE for an Overview of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010“, better known as “Obamacare” and other Health Care Reforms.
HIPAA, is a Law that followed COBRA in 1996, and is a further “expansion of COBRA”; however, it deals mainly with the issue of health coverage portability (i.e. the ability of an insured who has exhausted COBRA extended benefits, to then be able to obtain replacement, non-Group coverage, but on a guaranteed issue basis, and regardless of negative health history). Additionally, its provisions apply to all sized Groups including not only 2-19 (as in the Cal-COBRA provisions), or 20-50 (as in the Federal COBRA provisions) and where 2-50 are defined in CA as “small Groups”, but to ALL Groups sized 2 or more employees.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has an online resource called the “elaws – Health Benefits Advisor” (see link below) where employers can more fully understand and learn how to better comply with the requirements of COBRA & HIPAA. COBRA & HIPAA Laws are subject to regular amendments; therefore, for the most up to date information please refer to the following online resources and your own counsel:
- Overview of HIPAA and COBRA, see IRS Notice 98-12: http://www.irs.gov
- http://www.dol.gov/elaws/ebsa/health/
- http://counsel.cua.edu/FEDLAW/Cobra.htm
IMPORTANT NOTE: www.LeagueFinancial.com partners with several third party COBRA/HIPAA Administrators to manage compliance matters for its clients. We have found that the slightly added costs of these services are well worth the savings in rather substantial fines and penalties that, more often than not, most employers incur due to lack of a complete understanding of such compliance matters.
[Disclosure: This information is intended as a guide and as general information, is not definitive, and is for illustrative purposes only. The information contained herein is not intended to be used as a replacement to the Law, to any legal forms, or to any legislative and/or other requirements. We are not licensed for and therefore do not provide tax or legal advice]
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