Dive Brief:
- According to an audit by the Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), 30% of health insurers failed to file their 2014 provider fee forms to the IRS on time.
- All "covered entities" were required to submit their Form 8963 insurer fee returns by April 15, 2014, according to Section 9010 of the ACA.
- TIGTA reports 68 of the 477 entities missed the official deadline and 143 missed the May 15 grace period deadline.
Dive Insight:
Due to the structure of the Section 9010 fee program, those insurers who file late impact the fee payment amounts of the others, notes LifeHealthPro. Seven insurers actually filed so late their explanations were excluded in TIGTA's analysis.
Although the IRS considered the use of a reconcilliation process to include the late filers in the payment calculations, officials "rejected such a process because it would lead to a lack of certainty and finality with regard to the fees for each year," Heather Maloy, commissioner for the large business and international division at the IRS, wrote. "IRS believes that, overall, fee-payers highly value the certainty and finality of the current process."
The other issue for payers is the risk of late-filing fees, which TIGTA estimates could be worth $4.9 million to the IRS in penalty revenue. Maloy sad the IRS would consider and assess penalties on a case-by-case basis.