The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, comes with a few carrots and lots of sticks to push companies to provide health coverage, pay penalties if they don’t, improve current plans, and pay new fees and taxes to fund research and other initiatives. And who, exactly, will be wielding those sticks?
The cast of regulators is slowly coming together as new rules are written, helping companies to focus their compliance efforts. At the same time, the massive amount of work involved for the government to implement the law is also becoming apparent. As with previous mammoth pieces of legislation—think Sarbanes-Oxley or Dodd-Frank Acts—nearly every regulator involved is struggling to keep up with the deadlines set out in the law.
