The Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Health Care Reform”) requires non-grandfathered health plans and health insurance issuers, offering non-grandfathered group or individual health insurance coverage, to provide benefits for certain preventive health services without cost sharing. These preventive health services include, with respect to women, contraception coverage¹. In 2011, the government issued rules to exempt specified religious organizations from this mandate and set forth a 4-pronged test to determine whether an entity was a “religious employer.” Due to significant resistance, additional rules were issued in 2012 providing a safe harbor for other organizations protesting the coverage of contraception due to religious beliefs. This safe harbor will expire with the first day of the first plan year after August 1, 2013.
The latest proposed rule, issued in February 2013, makes two principal changes to the preventive services coverage rules to provide women’s contraceptive coverage without cost sharing, while taking into account religious objections to contraceptive services of eligible organizations. This also includes eligible organizations that are religious institutions of higher education that establish or maintain health coverage.