If you would like 2003 tax season information, click here.

The Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) is a program that can help pay for nearly two-thirds of eligible individuals’ health plan premiums. This section of the website is intended to provide health plan administrators with the information you need as partners in the HCTC program. We organized the information around three topic areas.

We help you understand The Program so you can make an informed decision regarding participation.

We cover Core Topics we think you will want to know more about.

We help you understand Operational Support that is being made available to you to facilitate your administrative and reporting requirements.

We have also included a list of Frequently Asked Questions.

Overview of the Program
Your industry is vital to the program's success. It is estimated that the number of people who may be able to claim the HCTC combined with their qualified family members could total over 500,000 in 2003 alone. However, people who may be eligible for the program cannot take advantage of this credit without having qualified health plans from which to choose. Having several coverage options available and overall access to affordable health care will enable the widest possible participation in the program.

No additional action is required by the state for automatically qualified plans. States, however, may elect to provide other types of qualified plans for those individuals who are not eligible to enroll in an automatically qualified plan. That's where you come in. There are several types of state-qualified plans that can be established. The criteria the plans must meet are outlined in The Program topic area. You may also want to review the area in the State Agencies section of the website called Qualify Health Plans.

Your participation in the state-qualified health plan component of the program is completely voluntary. In considering whether to participate, you should know that our goal is to keep your administrative and reporting requirements to a minimum. Also, there are significant benefits to participation, including:

• Many program participants are or would otherwise be uninsured.
  
• Qualified health plan administrators will receive 100% of the health plan premium payments from the US Treasury for HCTC participants who submit their 35 percent premium payment to the HCTC program.

Resources
Newsletters offering additional HCTC information can be found on the Operational Support page.

Click here if you would like to see a list of state-qualified plans that have been arranged around the country.

The HCTC Program Kit (PDF) is mailed to candidates that are potentially eligible for the Health Coverage Tax Credit. This online version of the document contains eligibility and registration information, but does not include the HCTC Registration Form.

HCTC Program HIPAA Statement and Disclaimer
Members of the HCTC program met separately with Department of Health and Human Services representatives at both the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to discuss the role that the HCTC program has in complying with the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Administrative Simplification rules. After careful consultation with both offices, it was determined that the HCTC program is not a "covered entity" under the Administrative Simplification rules of HIPAA. Therefore, HCTC is not bound by the HIPAA rules regarding Privacy Security, Transactions and Code Sets, and Individual Identifiers. Please read the HCTC Program HIPAA Statement and Disclaimer HCTC Program HIPAA Statement and Disclaimer (HTML version), HCTC Program HIPAA Statement and Disclaimer (PDF version) for more details.

Go to the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) Overview page.