If the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has created extra anxiety foryour organization or your clients over the last seven years, you’renot alone. When regulations were first signed into law in March2010, they represented a significant change to the U.S. health caresystem not seen since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid.New provisions meant new requirements — namely the mandaterequiring employers to file employee health care data with the IRS.Meeting these reporting obligations placed greater pressure thanever on employers, with the threat of penalties for non-compliancelooming ahead.

On November 9, 2016, the nation woke to the results of thePresidential election and many employers immediately anticipated anACA shakeup. President Trump was clear in his stance and message:ACA repeal and replacement were top priority for the newadministration.

With any change in legislation, moving a gigantic bureaucracy isequivalent to steering a battleship: course corrections don’thappen quickly. And the ACA was no different. It was clear that atransformation would not happen overnight. For more than eightmonths, the discussion around ACA waged on, leaving employers onthe edge of their seats ; many hoping that filing employee healthcare data with the IRS would become null and void.