Concerns Have Been Raised by Volunteer Firefighters About Requirements Under New Healthcare Law / In Letter to Treasury Secretary, Casey Makes Case for PA First Responders / Recently, Casey Secured Commitment from IRS Commissioner Nominee to Address Concerns Raised by Volunteer Firefighters
Washington, DC- Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) announced that he, along with seven other senators, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew calling on the Administration to immediately address concerns raised by volunteer firefighters about coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Recently at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee Casey secured a commitment from the likely next Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to quickly address these concerns upon confirmation.
“It’s incumbent upon the Administration to quickly address the legitimate concerns that have been raised by volunteer firefighters across Pennsylvania,” Senator Casey said. “I’m pleased that the IRS’s likely next Commissioner committed to address this issue. This fix is something that the Administration can take care of right away and they should.”
Some fire companies with over 50 volunteer firefighters have raised concerns about whether they are required to provide health insurance for these volunteers under the ACA. With already tight budgets, many volunteer fire companies are worried about the uncertainty of additional costs.
The full text of Senator Casey’s letter can be seen below:
The Honorable Jacob Lew
Secretary
Department of the Treasury
Dear Secretary Lew:
We write regarding the treatment of nominally compensated volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (P.L. 111-148). Many combination and volunteer fire departments are lacking the necessary guidance as to how they may be affected by the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision of the ACA. We believe that it is critical that volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel not be counted as employees as it relates to the ACA and any employer responsibilities to ensure the continuation of this important aspect of our public safety infrastructure.
Approximately 780,000 volunteer firefighters serve in 20,000 all-volunteer and 7,000 combination career-volunteer fire departments throughout the United States. Many communities rely exclusively upon volunteer fire departments for fire protection and emergency medical services. In fact, ninety-two percent of the nation’s fire departments utilize volunteer personnel, whose donated services are estimated to be worth approximately $140 billion annually.
Many volunteer fire and emergency medical personnel receive nominal benefits, which boost recruitment and retention by demonstrating that their efforts are appreciated. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and section 457(e) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) allow volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel to be nominally compensated for their service. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also tends to treat volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel as employees of the agencies that they serve for the purpose of taxing their nominal benefits. This however, leads to some confusion as to whether the classification of volunteer firefighters as “employees” will also apply for the purposes of the Shared Responsibility Provision of the ACA.
We believe the allowances made in the FLSA and the IRC for individuals to receive nominal compensation in return for their service while still being classified as “volunteers” are critically important in the public safety community. Nominally compensated volunteers often have other full-time jobs which offer health insurance and generally do not have any expectation of receiving health insurance in exchange for their volunteer service.
We believe that it would be fair to use existing standards in the IRC to ensure that “bona fide volunteers performing fire fighting and prevention services, emergency medical services, or ambulance services” are not defined as employees for purposes of calculating the shared responsibility provisions of the ACA. Properly distinguishing between full-time, paid emergency responders and volunteers is necessary if we want to protect essential emergency response agencies that keep our communities safe and protect over one-third of the U.S. population.
It is imperative that clarifying guidance be issued as soon as possible in order to provide clear guidance to combination and volunteer fire departments.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
CC: Thomas E. Perez, Secretary of Labor
Daniel I. Werfel, Acting IRS Commissioner
###
