ACA Payment Certification Rule Set Aside by Texas Federal Court

The federal government violated a Texas janitorial business’s due process rights by failing to properly certify that it owed excise tax liability under the Affordable Care Act, a federal court ruled.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services improperly delegated its authority to certify employers—a required step before they can assessed employee shared responsibility payments—to the IRS, contravening the language of the ACA, the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas said Thursday. Its opinion set aside the HHS Certification Regulation under the Administrative Procedure Act.

“The required certification must come from HHS as directed by the statutory ...