Benefits

For 34 years, Gwendolyn Beasley worked as a clerk at the Detroit Public Library and paid a portion of her salary into a fund that would someday help pay for her pension.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needs to strengthen systems development controls for the Premium Tax Credit (PTC) Project, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) concludes in a new report publicly released today.

Deloitte has issued a report showing that employers view the health-care system as wasteful and expensive, and that their keys for improving the system are increased transparency around pricing and performance. The report also reveals that, three years into the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), many companies do not fully understand the law's features.

Health reform expanded Medicaid to those earning less than 138 percent of poverty level. To speed up the application process, Medicaid no longer asks for savings account statements and insurance policy values to determine eligibility.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday a one-year delay in allowing small business owners to use the federal government's flawed online insurance marketplace to buy health coverage for their employees and themselves under the Affordable Care Act.

Both sides still are coming to terms with the potential outcomes of the decision on whether to expand the state and federally funded program providing health care for people with low incomes. It could be years before the issue is resolved, said Del. R. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, the vice chairman of a state panel exploring the topic.

Anyone trying to estimate their 2014 income to know whether they qualify for tax credits from a new health insurance exchange likely ran into this question:

Thomson Reuters Releases ACA Decision Support Tool for Tax and Employee Benefits Professionals