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ACA Employer Compliance
Segal's reference table adds the 2026 employer shared responsibility penalty amounts, the 2026 affordability percentage, and the federal poverty line safe harbor for plan years beginning January 1, 2026, a practical one-stop update for ACA compliance planning.
While the legislation's future is still unclear, there are many important things for leaders to know.
New NIRS survey shows deepening concerns about retirement viability in current economy, plus a distrust of AI financial advice and crypto investments.
On August 10, President Trump signed an executive order directing HHS to sort childhood vaccines into three tiers of recommendation within 90 days. Groom's read for plan sponsors: the order doesn't itself revise the CDC's ACIP-based immunization schedule, so the ACA's requirement that non-grandfathered group health plans cover ACIP-recommended immunizations without cost-sharing is unchanged for now. HHS's request for comment on the new framework runs through September 20.
HHS filed a request for information asking how federal vaccine recommendations should be categorized and what role shared clinical decision-making should play. We are tracking it because non-grandfathered group health plans must cover recommended immunizations without cost sharing under the ACA preventive services mandate, and the recommendation categories are the input to that requirement. This is an RFI, not a rule, so nothing changes for plan sponsors now; the question is whether it ripens into rulemaking that touches first-dollar coverage.
A Massachusetts federal judge vacated the marketplace rule's restriction on coverage of gender-affirming care while upholding several other ACA rollback provisions. A marketplace-side ruling, but one carriers and multi-state plans will be tracking.
Employers name high drug prices, high-cost claims, and hospital prices as their biggest affordability threats, and most say healthcare inflation is now eating directly into salary budgets. The compensation-side echo of the 10 percent trend number IFEBP put up last week.
are making them hesitant to move forward, according to a survey.
Revenue Procedure 2026-26 provides the 2027 indexing adjustments for the ACA premium tax credit applicable percentage table and sets the required contribution percentage at 10.22 percent, up from 9.96 percent for 2026. That figure drives the employer affordability safe harbors, so sponsors should have it in hand before setting 2027 employee contributions.
The American 401(k) is often celebrated as one of the greatest financial innovations of the past half century. Millions of workers have accumulated retirement savings through payroll deductions, employer matching contributions, and decades of economic growth.
Most analyses of the 401(k) industry rank providers according to assets under management, number of plans, or participants. While useful, these rankings fail to explain why some providers consistently appear in ERISA excessive-fee litigation while others rarely do.
ACA Marketplace insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 14% for 2027— indicating a likely second consecutive year of double-digit increases, according to a new analysis of preliminary rate filings in 16 states and DC.
In Supreme Linen Services, Inc. v. U.S., 2026 WL 1220078 (S.D. Fla. 2026), an employer sued the federal government after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assessed an employer shared responsibility penalty against the company.
The expiration of the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits at the start of 2026, combined with rising insurer premiums, put a spotlight on health care affordability that extends beyond Marketplace enrollees.