Employers' PPACA reporting questions linger

In some cases, unions for actors, musicians, video editors and other workers who move from gig to gig organize the multiemployer arrangements to ensure that union members can keep the same coverage throughout the year. Rather than providing health coverage directly, the employer that employs the union members sends cash to the multiemployer plan.

In practice, the multiemployer plans have refused to fill out the 1095-C forms or give employers the information they would need to fill out the forms, Sweeney said.

Some multiemployer plan administrators have argued that providing the 1095-C information could violate the enrollees’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) health privacy rights, Sweeney said.

Some benefits tax advisors say the employers contributing to the multiemployer plans can simply check the box stating that they provide adequate coverage; others say those employers should describe the coverage they offer in more detail.

Sweeney, who has been involved with benefits law since 1989, said the uncertainty about the matter is an example of how PPACA implementation has been much more complicated than implementation of the other big benefits laws that have come out in recent decades.

“It’s a much bigger undertaking,” Sweeney said.

The IRS is an arm of the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury Department, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Labor Department last held a tri-agency meeting with benefits lawyers at the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2014, Sweeney said.

One way for the departments to clear up some of the remaining confusion about PPACA compliance could be for them to participate in another tri-agency meeting with benefits professionals, Sweeney said.

See also: 3 ways PPACA 1095-C reporting may zap your clients