Feds clarify timing to avoid PPACA penalties

WASHINGTON (AP) — You’ll have to get coverage by Valentine’s Day or thereabouts to avoid penalties for being uninsured, the Obama administration confirms, clarifying one of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s least popular requirements.

That’s about six weeks earlier than a March 31 deadline often cited previously.

The explanation: coverage typically starts on the first day of a given month, and it takes up to 15 days to process applications.

You still have to be covered by March 31 to avoid penalties for those remaining uninsured. But to successfully accomplish that you have to send in your application by the middle of February.