To keep
grandfathered status after switching carriers or policies, an employer must show the new carrier that the new plan will be similar enough to the old plan to qualify for
grandfathered status, officials say.
The Regulations provide that if any of the following changes are made to a group health plan, the plan will lose its
grandfathered status:
Some organizations representing employers have submitted comment letters requesting changes in the interim regulations regarding
grandfathered status.
That's up to you, but my guess is that the extra amount most companies would pay to maintain their
grandfathered status year after year will be more than they would pay by going with one of the new plans.
Details on the routine changes insurers and employers can make without losing their
grandfathered status and the projected impact on large and small employer plans are highlighted in the administration's Fact Sheet: Keeping the Health Plan You Have: The Affordable Care Act and "
Grandfathered" Health Plans (www.Healthreform.gov/newsroom/keeping_the_health_plan_you_have.html).
The interim final regulations estimate that approximately 51 percent of all employer plans will lose their
grandfathered status by the end of 2013.
It first looked to determine if Congress had spoken directly to the question of whether the exercise, release or lapse of a GPA granted under a
grandfathered GSTT-exempt trust was a "transfer under the trust" for purposes of TRA '86 Section 1433(b)(2)(A).
Over the years, the Service has issued numerous rulings on changes that will cause a trust to lose its
grandfathered status.
A plan can qualify for
grandfathered status by showing that it is roughly the same today as it was before March 23, 2010, when PPACA was signed into law.
"A number of those people who would be
grandfathered got their apartments because they knew the unit was protected and the owner did not.
The regulations, however, appear to give all such pre-January 16 arrangements permanent "grandfather" status, barring "substantial modification." Further, arrangements involving partnerships in place prior to March 23, 1998 are also
grandfathered. If, however, a
grandfathered arrangement is "substantially" modified, its protected status is revoked.
In years in which an excess distribution was made, the regulations provided two alternative methods to recover the
grandfathered amount--the discretionary method and the attained age method.