Affordable Care Act won't be simple, or cheap, panel says

The Affordable Care Act is going to be a reporting nightmare for small businesses, an expert says.

Bill Hethcock  Staff Writer- Dallas Business Journal

Mar 8, 2013, 2:12pm CST

A compliance nightmare.

That's how Bill Hattox, senior tax manager with TravisWolff, described the affect of the Affordable Care Act on small businesses.

Hattox was one of six experts on a panel I moderated this morning in Irving on the health care act's impact on business and employees.

"Every single small business person is going to feel a major impact," Hattox said. "It's not going to force them to close up shop. But they're going to have a compliance nightmare on their hands."

Fellow panelist Peggy Bass, director of client services at Prescott Pailet Benefits, said employers of all sizes will be affected. The expansion of health care benefits and the mandates to cover services that haven't been covered before will increase costs across the board, she said.

The Affordable Care Act is bringing sweeping changes, but simplification isn't one of them, she said.

"With all of the additional taxes and fees that are imposed, your insurance bill is going to start looking like your wireless bill," Bass said. "You're going to look at it and go 'What is that?'"

Bill Lucia, president and CEO of HMS Inc., said his company helps Medicaid control costs. More people on Medicaid, as will occur under the Affordable Care Act, means more opportunities to control the costs that are in Medicaid, he said.

"The Medicaid program is not perfect," Lucia said. "It really does need an overhaul. But it's one of the railroad tracks we have in the nation to start covering more people."

There are 47 tax regulations that pertain to the Affordable Care Act, and more are being written, Hattox said. The IRS hasn't figured out yet how to administer the regulations already on the books, he said.

"The small business people are going to have to pay experts like us to come in and tell them what to do and what not to do in order to comply with the health care requirements," he said.

The Greater Irving-Las Colinas Chamber served as hosts for the breakfast and panel discussion at the Four Seasons Resort & Club.

Other panelists included U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess; Regina Montoya, senior vice president for external affairs and general counsel at Children's Medical Center of Dallas; and Cindy Schamp, president of Baylor Medical Center at Irving.

Watch here for more comments from the panel and look for even more coverage of the Affordable Care Act's implications for employers in our upcoming print edition.

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