Tax Treatment of Direct Primary Care

This may be one of the most confusing topics encountered by DPC physicians, patients, and employers. DPC practices face detailed questions about these topics from employers, patients, accountants, attorneys, and policy makers. Hopefully these explanations will be useful. Remember that while Dr. Eskew is a licensed physician, attorney (member of the Kentucky Bar), and accounting major, he does not spend most of his time on tax issues and this discussion should not be deemed official tax advice.

The "Gap Plan" Logic

While the Affordable Care Act and many states contain language expressly stating that DPC is NOT insurance, the folks in treasury continue to maintain the argument that when an individual patient purchases a DPC plan he has bought a type of "gap" insurance. Following their faulty logic further, they conclude that the purchase of this second "gap" plan means that the individual is no longer eligible to use or contribute to a health savings account because the addition of the "gap" product means that the individual no longer has a qualifying high deducible health plan (which is what made him HSA eligible in the first place). This letter sent to the IRS by Senator Murray, Senator Cantwell, and Congressman McDermott referenced the DPC provision of the ACA (section 1301(a)(3)) - stating that DPC was not an insurance plan. They argued that section 223(c) of the Internal Revenue Code should be updated to reflect that DPC medical homes are not a type of "health plan" and that periodic fee payments to primary care physicians should be recognized as a "qualified medical expense" under section 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code. In this response from Commissioner Koskinen, the IRS declined to decide whether periodic fees might be a qualified medical expense under 213(d), but did make it clear that they view DPC as a second health plan under section 223(c)(1)(A)(ii). For DPC periodic fees to not be viewed as a second plan, it would need to be considered disregarded coverage under section 223(c)(1)(B) or be designed so that it exclusively covered preventive care. For those planning to get creative with the exclusively preventive care exception, note that the IRS defines preventive care in a narrow manner.

The DPC Coalition has been fighting this issue for years and sought to educate the IRS so that a helpful clarification could be made. Rather than changing their policy to be consistent with other federal and state laws, the IRS has stated that if we want this corrected, we must "pass a bill." Here is a link to SB 1989, which was drafted in part to resolve this issue.

The "Qualifying Medical Expense" Debate

Assuming the IRS decided that DPC was not an unlawful second "gap" plan, meaning that an individual with a DPC plan was now eligible to contribute to an HSA, the second question is whether DPC periodic fees qualify as medical expense. (I would point out that there is no debate about itemized fees qualifying as medical expenses - such as cash prices for lab testing, pathology, various itemized procedures, etc.) To answer this question one must try to interpret IRS Publication 502 Medical and Dental Expenses. "Medical expenses are the costs of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and the costs for treatments affecting any part or function of the body. These expenses include payments for legal medical services rendered by physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other medical practitioners. They include the costs of equipment, supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for these purposes. Medical care expenses must be primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental defect or illness. They don't include expenses that are merely beneficial to general health, such as vitamins or a vacation."

Can a Patient Pay for DPC with HSA dollars?

Not if you are billing on a purely traditional periodic fee basis! See the discussion above. I cringe when I see physicians state without reservation that an HSA can be used to pay routine periodic fees. The patient has the legal risk in this scenario - not your medical practice. Taking on your own legal risk is one thing, but offloading it onto patients is something else entirely. Structuring your DPC arrangement to be HSA deductible requires you to consider three options (none of these legal theories have been litigated either):

Structure the DPC plan so that it is considered disregarded coverage under section 223(c)(1)(B),
Design the plan so that it exclusively covered preventive care (per the IRS's narrow definition), or
Structure the DPC plan so that it mirrors the 90 day global surgery fee program, whereby at the initial visit the patient is charged (technically in a fee for service manner) on the first day, and the following ninety days of follow up care for issues discussed during this initial visit are then included without additional charge

Can a Patient Pay for DPC with FSA dollars?

This remains a debated issue. Hopefully the following resources are helpful. Flexible Spending Accounts (aka Section 125 Cafeteria Plans) may qualify (one group's opinion of eligible expenses, note "boutique") Theoretically DPC should qualify if structured properly. In other words, the practice would want to bill in arrears, focus on preventive nature, consider itemized statement of preventive services, etc. Here is one group's example of a Healthcare Qualifying Expenses Table. This likely turns on an Internal Revenue Code Section 213(d) analysis as well - a yet to be decided issue. Winning this argument might also get DPC in the preferred "disregarded coverage" category under section 223(c)(1)(B) as discussed above.

Can an Employer Pay for DPC for its Employees?

Yes! This answer is a resounding yes for large employers that elect to self insure with stop loss. For other employers the answer is more complicated. If the employer does not provide a qualified plan for its employees (regardless of whether it has 50+ or less than 50 full time equivalent employees), then according to the IRS providing only DPC would be "an arrangement (that) fails to satisfy the market reforms and may be subject to a $100/day excise tax per applicable employee (which is $36,500 per year, per employee) under section 4980D of the Internal Revenue Code." However, an employer payment plan "generally does not include an arrangement under which an employee may have an after-tax amount applied toward health coverage or take that amount in cash compensation." The most likely scenario for DPC practices is that you are approached by a employer of less than 50 employees that wants to sponsor DPC. This employer was not required to buy insurance for its employees, but now does not want to be subject to a $100 per day fine per employee. It would appear that the safest way to structure this arrangement to avoid the fine is to make sure the employer paid the DPC fees with after tax dollars, and of course gave the employees the option to take cash rather than enroll in the DPC practice. Federal legislation (the Small Business Healthcare Relief Act) has been proposed to remove this $100 per day fine (H.R.2911 & S.B. 1697), but it is not gaining much traction (see this blog discussion from Zane Benefits for more details). The National Federation of Independent Businesses also offers a helpful overview.

UPDATE! On Dec 8, 2016 with the passage of H.R. 34: 21st Century Cures Act the potential for a $100 per day fine for the less than fifty employers desiring to pay for DPC services with pretax dollars has largely been eliminated. See for yourself by reading the provisions. See for yourself by reading the language under Title XVIII Other Provisions Sec 18001. Exception from group health plan requirements for qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangements

If the employer does provide a qualified plan, either through the purchase of a traditional plan or via a self insured / stop loss policy, then the employer may also purchase DPC for its employees without concern for the $100 daily fine. For more introductory information see this IRS discussion of Employer Health Care Arrangements. Unless you are charging individual patients more than $4,950 per year or families more than $10,000 per year you should be in good shape!

Those readers that want to dig into the details should also review IRS Notice 2013-54 and IRS Notice 2015-17 (especially Questions 4 and 5). These complicated discussions are difficult even for attorneys and accountants. I will attempt to summarize my reading. If you are dealing with an employer (likely fewer than 50 employees) that does not want to be stuck with the $100 per employee per day fine, you will need to argue that the employer's decision to purchase DPC for its employees does NOT amount to a "Health Reimbursement Arrangement." The IRS says that a HRA is "an arrangement that is funded solely by an employer and that reimburses an employee for medical care expenses as defined under Code section 213(d)." At this stage, you could launch two potential defenses: 1) structure the DPC arrangement such that each individual patient must pay part of the monthly fee so that the employer is not "solely" funding the arrangement, or 2) you could (ironically) argue that DPC is not a recognized medical care expense under section 213(d).

Those reading this page closely would note that the IRS has yet to firmly decide whether DPC periodic fees are an expense under 213(d). In terms of our HSA argument (discussed above) this is harmful since patients could not pay for DPC periodic fees with HSA dollars, but in terms of the HRA argument here it could be helpful because it could help the employer avoid this large fine. Are you confused yet? The safest and easiest way to avoid the $100 per day fine is probably to make the purchase of DPC a post-tax option as contemplated in Question #4 of Notice 2015-17 and mentioned above.

Large Employer Concerns?

Do on-site or near-site DPC clinics qualify as "employee welfare benefit plans" pursuant to 29 U.S. Code § 1002 (the referenced term "medical care" is defined here)? Yes - if DPC is paid for with pretax dollars it will be considered a benefit plan by the IRS the employer will need to include these details in their form 5500. Even if your DPC clinic is on-site it will not fit within the on-site clinic exception described in the US Code section above for the form 5500. DPC services are too broad in scope to qualify for this exception that is intended for mere band-aid stations. If the patient were to lose his job and wish to remain with the practice then he would be able to do this (at least for a limited time period) pursuant to COBRA requirements. Two helpful resources: this FAQ from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans & also McDermott, Will, & Emery On-Site Medical Guidelines.

The Short Answers:

- If the employer has less than fifty employees, then the simplest answer is to avoid any potential IRS dispute is to pay for the monthly DPC fee with post-tax dollars.
- If the patient has an HSA plan and wants to both maintain this HSA (continue to contribute to it) and use the HSA to pay for medical services, then the safest answer is to charge them on a cash-pay fee for service basis (ideally in a manner and amounts that would lead to approximately the same charges you would expect with your periodic fees).