2018 ACA Cost Benefit Updates HHS Targets Privacy Breaches 

Annual cost-sharing limits for nongrandfathered group health plans would increase to $7,350 for individuals and $14,700 for families in 2018, under a recent CMS proposal. This marks a 2.8% increase from the 2017 limits, which cap out-of-pocket costs for in-network covered essential health benefits under nongrandfathered group health plans at $7,150 for self-only coverage and $14,300 for broader coverage.

Applying the same premium adjustment percentage to employer shared-responsibility assessments, the play-or-pay assessment for not offering coverage would increase to $2,320, while the assessment for offering coverage that is unaffordable or lacks minimum value would increase to $3,480 for 2018.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has launched an initiative to more widely investigate HIPAA breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals. Historically, investigations have focused on breaches involving protected health information (PHI) of 500 or more individuals, but OCR now intends to shift more attention to the root causes of smaller breaches. OCR believes breach investigations allow it to better understand industry-wide compliance problems as well as compel corrections for entity-specific deficiencies.