A HRA Fairy Tale

[Lee B]

Once upon a time, employees of the government were very very busy promulgating endless

rules and regulations to instruct the citizens how to follow that wondrous creation known as

The ACA.

 

One day after the moon and the sun had circled the planet many many times,spokespersons

came forth and said, "Lo and behold citizens, if you have been a member of an HRA, the rules are all different  and to show that we are most thoughtful the rules go back to the beginning of this year.

 

 The citizens and their advisors were most confused crying, "This makes no sense, what will

we do?" The advisors went to the country's revenue agency, "This makes no sense, what will we do?"

 

The employees at the revenue agency said, "We don't know, the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing."

 

The employees at the agency promulgating the new rules and regulations said, "We don't

know, the left hand knows not what the right hand is doing."

 

Moral of the story:

 

If the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing you may be in big trouble.

 

Footnote:  It is said that this is what actually happened. The employees of the DOL and HHS

did not know that rules and regulations they were writing would be in conflict with the rules already

in place at the IRS. The employees at the IRS had no idea that the employees at the DOL and HHS

were going to publish these rules when they did and were extremely surprised. After all no proposed

rules or regs were ever published nor were any hearing ever held.