Commentary: As employers continue to work to implement the provisions of the Affordable Care Act and provide health care coverage that is both fair for the employee and affordable for the organization, many have considered so-called skinny plans. These are health insurance plans that provide coverage meeting the ACAs minimal essential coverage or minimum value requirements, but offer very little else.
However, toward the end of 2014, the federal government tried to slam the door on a type of skinny plan called a minimum value plan. Thats when it issued rules clarifying that if a minimum value plan does not provide coverage for in-patient hospitalization or physician-services, then the employer cannot avoid a penalty for failing to offer coverage that meets the ACAs minimum value threshold.
