Affordable Care Act

 Welcome to the Kentucky Conference Health Care Reform Webpage!

Exchange Notice Requirement

 

As required under federal law, The Board of Pensions of the Kentucky Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is providing its participants with a number of important notices related to your health plan benefits, as follows:

  • Medicare Part D Notice
  • HIPAA Special Enrollment Notice
  • WHCRA Notice
  • NMHPA Notice
  • CHIP/Medicaid Notice
  • HIPAA Privacy Notice
  • HIPAA Privacy Notice Reminder
  • Exchange Notice

Click here to review these notices.

ACA Resources for Local Churches

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires all employers to distribute a Notice about the new Health Insurance Marketplaces (often called “Exchanges”) to all full-time and part-time employees – whether or not they are covered in the employer’s health plan. Employers are not required to send the Notice to seasonal or temporary staff.
 
Under the ACA, the “employer” is the salary-paying unit – typically the church or ministry where one works on a day-to-day basis. This applies even if the annual conference administers health benefits, and even for clergy who are considered “self-employed” for employment tax (SECA) purposes.
 
Wespath Benefits and Investments has provided additional information regarding the requirement. Click here to read UMC Local Churches – Required Notification to All Employees.
 
On this webpage, you can also download important documents to help with distributing the Notice.

EXCHANGE NOTICE COVER LETTER (Optional)
Download, edit and print this letter that your church can send to its clergy and lay employees with the Notice. Parts of the letter are not able to be edited, but feel free to add additional contact information for your employees and/or print on your own letterhead.

NOTICE TEMPLATES
Please choose and download the form that best suits your situation as an employer
Notice for employers that offer a health plan to some or all of its employees:
·         PDF version (withplans)
·         MS Word version (with plans)
 
Notice for employers that do not offer a health plan:
·         PDF version (withoutplans)
·         MS Word version (withoutplans)
 
ACA Notice Requirement Helpful Hints for Local Churches
A guidelines summary to help you complete the template form.

 

EXCHANGE NOTICE FAQ
PDF of FAQs

For any questions or problems downloading forms, please email benefits@kyumc.org.

 

Employer Shared Responsibility Toolkit

Beginning January 1, 2015, the ACA requires certain employers to offer affordable health coverage under the Employer Shared Responsibility Rule. This coverage must provide at least “minimum value” to Full-Time Employees and be “affordable” to them.

The rule requires any Applicable Large Employer (ALE) to offer health insurance coverage to Full-Time Employees or else pay a No Coverage Penalty. An ALE is any employer with 50 or more Full-Time and/or Full-Time Equivalent Employees (FTEEs).

ALEs are also responsible for reporting to the IRS whether or not minimum essential coverage was offered in 2015 to Full-Time Employees (Internal Revenue Code Section 6056 reporting). Churches who operate a daycare that is not separately incorporated should be mindful of this as they might qualify as an ALE and fall under these reporting requirements.

To determine whether or not you are an ALE and subject to any section 6056 reporting requirements, please visit www.kyumc.org/aca to review the Employer Shared Responsibility Toolkit, a guide published by the Wespath Benefits and Investments.

Click here to access the Employer Shared Responsibility Toolkit. 

Click here to access guidance from the Wespath on 6056 reporting.

 
ADDITIONAL WEB RESOURCES
Wespath’s Health Care Reform web page:
 
General information about health care reform:
 
Kentucky’s Health Insurance Marketplace "kynect":