WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following a letter last week from U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), the Treasury Department today announced that it is streamlining health insurance reporting requirements for businesses. The rules, mandated under the Affordable Care Act and finalized this afternoon, will only require a single, consolidated form to avoid duplicative reporting and simplify certification options for employers that provide healthcare, including an option to ease reporting by not separately identifying full-time employees.

“I am extremely pleased the Treasury Department simplified the insurance reporting requirements for businesses,” Senator King said. “Businesses are already struggling to survive in this sluggish economy, and rather than heaping excessive amounts of paperwork on them, we should be working to create an economic environment that allows them to flourish. The Administration took an encouraging step in that direction today, and I look forward to working with them more in the future to help our businesses grow and create jobs.”

Senator King has been working closely with top Administration officials for the past several months on the issue and last week sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew urging Treasury to ease the regulatory burdens placed on businesses by streamlining insurance reporting requirements. Under the originally proposed rules issued by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), employers with 50 or more employees were required to submit to the IRS forms which certify that they offered health care coverage to full-time employees. In addition, health insurance issuers and some employers would have needed to submit reports to the IRS about the type and period of coverage employees received.

The finalized rules announced today streamline and simplify these reporting requirements, many of which were outlined in a letter to Senator King from Alastair Fitzpayne, the Treasury Department’s Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs. The letter can be seen by clicking HERE.

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