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August 22, 2014 at 11:01 AM
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to let some nonprofit religious employers avoid paying for birth control benefits but help those employers’ workers get birth control coverage through a different channel.
A new HHS interim final rule would let eligible nonprofit employers with religious ties, such as schools and hospitals, avoid paying for birth control benefits. HHS would make free access to birth control benefits available to those employers’ workers by having HHS contact the insurer — or by having the U.S. Department of Labor contact the administrator of a self-insured plan — and having the insurer or the benefit plan administrator provide separate birth control coverage for the workers at no cost to the workers.
HHS also is posting a proposed regulation seeking advice on how to make a similar accommodation available to closely held for-profit companies.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), an arm of the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department, are joining with HHS to issue the interim rule and the proposed rule.
Sylvia Burwell, the new HHS secretary, said in a statement that the regulatory moves show regulators are taking employers’ religious concerns into account.
“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to providing women with access to coverage for contraception, while respecting religious considerations raised by non-profit organizations and closely held for-profit companies,” Burwell said.
Arina Grossu, a representative for the Family Research Council, a group that opposes the mandate, said employers that refuse to use the compromise arrangement would continue to face the threat of having to pay crippling fines for failing to meet the HHS preventive services benefits requirements.
She called exempting the employer from having to pay for birth control benefits while still offering the employer’s health plan enrollees free access to birth control coverage “an insulting accounting gimmick.” “The employer still remains the legal gateway by which these drugs and services will be provided to their employees,” Grossu said.
