New regulations could bog down federal agencies.

• Author: North, Cady
• Position: Washington insights

If you're still trying to figure out the practical details of the health-care bill, you're not alone. It's as if the outline of a painting with a little shading was finished by Congress. The rest of the work--providing details and color--was left to the regulatory agencies. That detail work, the "rulemaking process," will be a prolonged event, lasting years.

It also will not be an easy process to follow as more than 20 federal agencies have jurisdiction over the rulemaking or play some role in the law's implementation.

For instance, the U.S. Treasury Department will oversee the taxation provisions, Health and Human Services will oversee the health policy implications and most of the reporting requirements and the Department of Labor will play a role in reviewing the rules related to employees and the portability of health care through job changes (i.e. COBRA coverage).

The public at-large is generally unaware of the rulemaking process, which can sometimes have more of a direct effect than the law itself. This is potentially due to a lack in news coverage, the general complexities of the rules and/or being unfamiliar with the process. There are many details that are worked out in rulemaking, such as setting fines and thresholds for effectiveness.

Following are some of the major provisions in the health-care bill, the details of which will be implemented through rulemaking:

* General reporting requirements;

* 1099 reporting for business-to-business transactions and expenses totaling $600 or more;

* Evaluation and setting minimum standards for employer-provided health coverage;

* Reporting health insurance costs on W-2s;

* Eligibility for tax credits;

* Medicare Part D reporting;

* Other individual taxation changes that could affect payroll.

Financial Regulation Reform

Health-care reform will place a significant regulatory burden on many federal agencies, as well as on companies that must spend time and money navigating the legal and regulatory landscape. There are other areas where federal agencies will soon be working on implementing other major of legislation, including financial regulation reform.

The Financial Regulation Reform bill implementation will involve at least three agencies: Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

This legislation covers issues involving virtually every business sector of the economy including all companies utilizing over-the-counter derivatives for...