White House Executive Order Encourages IRS to Revise DPC Interpretation

"Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Treasury, to the extent consistent with law, shall propose regulations to treat expenses related to certain types of arrangements, potentially including direct primary care arrangements and healthcare sharing ministries, as eligible medical expenses under section 213(d) of title 26, United States Code."

 

I'm thrilled that DPC is being discussed more and more at many federal and state levels.  A law degree isn't required to notice that the terms above are simply encouraging the Secretary of the Treasury to look at things again.  There is no actual mandate that DPC be included in the proposed regulations.   Hopefully the Secretary will follow through the way trump intends. 

 

IRC Section 223(c) has always been the larger hurdle than 213(d), but hopefully the Treasury secretary will comment on 223(c) as well if revised guidance is offered.  I don't enjoy or promote coding, but oddly enough Medicare added (and then expanded) chronic care management codes a few years ago that could be referenced by us to quickly destroy any "not a medical expense" arguments from the IRS (especially the 99491.  We could always win this argument in court, but now it is easier than ever to successfully litigate this hackneyed issue.