As documented in the Overview, the individual shared responsibility provision calls for each individual to have minimum essential coverage for each month, or qualify for an exemption. A number of exemptions are called out in HCR legislation that are available in the exchange, or can be claimed as part of filing a tax return, or are available in both.
The exemptions supported by the HCR solution are those which can only be applied for through the exchange and the ones which can be applied for either through the exchange or by filing a tax return, however the hardship exemption is not currently supported, therefore the following exemption categories can be applied for:
Exemptions are applied for in a similar manner to other application processes. A user account is required in order to submit an exemption application. Applicants can apply for exemptions under more than one exemption category.
Additional information for each exemption category being requested is captured during the course of the application. This ensures that an applicant is only presented with questions that are relevant to the exemption for which he or she is applying, for example, an exemption due to religious conscience will ask only for the religious sect or division which the member is part of, and the date on which membership commenced. Once the application script is completed, rules are run to determine whether the applicants are likely to be eligible for the requested exemptions and the results are displayed on the HCR eligibility results page.
Unlike the other application processes, there is no plan selection or enrollment. The eligibility result can be processed by submitting the application, this invokes the Intake process so that cases can be created to manage the exemption in the same way as it handles any other application submission.