Leadership Matters September 2013 .pub

49th Annual IASA Conference October 9—11, 2013 Click here to register or for more information

Relland helps school districts with Affordable Care Act ___________________________

The so-called “Gang of Six” in the Senate (three Democrats and three Republicans) that had been working on a bipartisan plan fell apart at the 11 th hour and pressure from powerful lobbying groups representing the pharmaceutical companies and medical associations complicated the task. “It was so hard to get agreement even at a very high level and it would become almost impossible if they started to get down in the weeds on any particular issue. They had to keep it as simple as possible,” said Relland. “The statute itself is more than 2,000 pages with more than 1,500 places where Congress laid out a short rule and basically said ‘details to come.’ That meant agencies would have to come up with rules and there literally are thousands of pages of regulations.” Relland attained her undergraduate degree from the University of North Texas and her law degree from Tulane. She has spent the last 15 years helping employers in the arena of health and welfare benefit plan law. Her role in the Affordable Care Act process was to work with Congressional staffers regarding the technical aspects of the bill and communicate potential unintended consequences. “I represented employers,” said Relland, who at the time was an attorney with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Miller & Chevalier and previously had been the health policy legal counsel for the American Benefits Council and a consultant for Ernst and Young. “My role was to try and translate the bill into plain English and let the Congressional staffers know how the plan would really work out in the field.” Even though it’s been three years since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, Relland’s warning still remains viable. “There’s still much we don’t know,” she said. “There are no final regulations yet for the Free Rider Penalty, and there are other open questions. Will the exchanges be successful? How many people will use them? Is the act even fiscally sustainable?” Relland’s presentation at the IASA Conference will focus on breaking down the requirements facing school districts between now and 2015 and helping attendees create their own action plans.

“( School districts) need to start looking at a strategy sooner rather than later, It’s not as simple as choosing ‘A’ or ‘B.’

There are a lot of different levers districts can pull to create a strategy that will work for them. ”

— Susan Relland, Vice President for American Fidelity Assurance Company

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you have to credit them with eight hours for the day. That can be the difference for the substitute teacher qualifying for these benefits as a full-time employee,” Relland said. “One catch is that a district with a calendar year plan using a 12-month measurement period ideally would start capturing that data by October 1, 2013. Districts with non-calendar years need to start even earlier. For example, a district with a July 1 plan year needs to offer adequate/affordable coverage to 95% of full-time employees by the July 1, 2014 plan year or hold a second, mid-year open enrollment for coverage to take effect January 1, 2015 when the penalties start to apply." That’s just one example of attempting to navigate the twists and turns in the Affordable Care Act. Relland said the law was intentionally “broad and high-level” because of a combination of the time constraints involved and the lack of bipartisan political will. “From a practical standpoint, you can only pass a controversial law like this in the first 12 to 18 months a president in office because of the politics surrounding the mid-term Congressional elections at the end of the second year and the next presidential campaign that begins after that,” she said. “Also, the Democrats at the time had a full sweep – control of the presidency, the Senate and the House – and that was going to be their best chance to pass it.”

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