Affordable Care Act (ACA) Individual Mandate: IRS Filing Requirements July 2015

ACA requires most Americans, including university students, to:  Have qualifying health care coverage (Minimum Essential Coverage) OR  Qualify for an exemption OR  Make a payment when filing federal income tax, starting 2015 This is known as the “individual mandate” Affordable Care Act (ACA)

 Health plans are required to report their member information to the IRS, starting calendar year 2015  Name, address, SSN, and dates of coverage  Purpose: verify individuals covered under a qualified health care plan during the year  Individuals who are not covered, or do not verify coverage, may be required to pay a tax penalty IRS Reporting Requirements Internal Revenue Code Sections 6055 & 6056

 Insurance companies will report member name, address, SSN, and dates of coverage to the IRS report for fully insured student health plans (Berkeley, Davis, Irvine undergrads, Santa Barbara, and Riverside)  As a self-funded health plan, UC SHIP is required to report to the IRS to verify coverage for students and dependents covered under the Plan each year from now on:  Name  Address  Social Security Number  Dates of coverage (Hastings College of the Law, Irvine graduate students, Davis, Los Angeles, Merced, San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz) UC Student Health Plans

 2016 is the first year reporting of health care coverage is required under Internal Revenue Code Sections 6055 and 6056  Filing deadline-- member data is due to IRS by March 31, 2016 for coverage in 2015  Members will receive a form 1095-B documenting their information was reported to IRS. Information on this form can be used to verify coverage on 2015 tax return IRS Filing Requirement

What if a student does not provide an SSN to their UC campus? Here are likely scenarios: Undocumented status students who do not have a SSN Students who do not wish to share their SSN with UC International students who do not work and file taxes Social Security Number

 The IRS requires health plans to request member SSN in writing when this information is missing on enrollment records  Required to request the SSN three times for each calendar year  Date of Birth may be substituted if the SSN is not available by filing deadline  IRS may contact individuals to request their SSN if it is not included in the filing Students without SSN

UC SHIP student members and covered dependents without SSN in the enrollment system will receive up to three letters requesting their SSN First round: Sent to UC SHIP dependents, June 26, 2015 Sent to mandatory students, July 17, 2015 Second round: For members who did not respond, the second round of letters will go out in November Third letter Early next year, after the filing deadline UC SHIP Communications

 Certain individuals may be exempt from the ACA requirement to obtain qualified Minimum Essential Coverage  They will receive a statement of coverage but do not need to provide a SSN  To see a list of exemptions, go to Care-Act/Individuals-and-Families/ACA-Individual-Shared- Responsibiity-Provision-Exemptionswww.irs.gov/Affordable- Care-Act/Individuals-and-Families/ACA-Individual-Shared- Responsibiity-Provision-Exemptions  Coverage exemptions should be reported on Form 8965 and filed with the individual’s IRS income tax form Exemptions

The Affordable Care Act and the individual shared responsibility requirement Shared-Responsibility-Provision READ MORE

 Contact your campus Student Health Operations Manager or Director  Contact Susan Mahoney at UCOP if pertaining to UC SHIP or general guidance on the If you have further questions