7
49th Annual IASA Conference
October 9—11, 2013
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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.”
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.
(Continued from page 6)
Relland helps school districts with Affordable Care Act ___________________________
“(
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
