Frequently Asked Questions about Form 1095-A
The information in these frequently asked questions pertains to 2016 coverage and 2016 tax filing.
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The information in these frequently asked questions pertains to 2016 coverage and 2016 tax filing.
Save it with your other tax-time documentation.
If advanced premium tax credit was paid towards your health insurance premiums in 2016 or if you or a member of your household wants to claim the premium tax credit on your return, then you must file a federal income tax return.
When you file your tax return, you will use your 1095-A to complete and file Form 8962 (Premium Tax Credit). Additional information about Form 1095-A can be found on the back under the "Instructions for Recipient" section.
MNsure can answer questions about Form 1095-A, but we cannot give you tax advice. If you have questions about Form 8962 or other tax-related questions, visit www.irs.gov.
Form 1095-A includes information you may need to fill out your federal income tax return for 2016:
MNsure will not provide Form 1095-A to consumers who were enrolled in only a catastrophic policy or a stand-alone dental plan, because they do not qualify for the premium tax credit. Form 1095-A is not issued for consumers who were enrolled in Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare. Information about Form 1095-B for Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare enrollees is available on the DHS website.
MNsure cannot give tax advice or answer questions on how to file your tax return. You can visit www.irs.gov to get instructions on how to use Form 1095-A to complete Form 8962. If you need assistance completing your tax return, you are encouraged to consult a qualified tax preparer. The Minnesota Department of Revenue has information about free tax preparation sites.
In some cases, MNsure printed and mailed duplicate forms for consumers. If you received identical Form 1095-As, then you should only use one of them when filing your tax return and disregard the others.
In other situations, consumers correctly received more than one Form 1095-A. Situations when you may have received multiple forms include, but are not limited to:
For example, if you had a baby in 2016 and added the baby to your coverage, then you may have received one Form 1095-A with the coverage information before the baby was added and another form with the coverage information after the baby was added. In these situations, the information printed on each form is different and you should use all forms when you file your tax return.
Yes, if you or your family members enrolled in more than one private health plan through MNsure, you will receive a Form 1095-A for each plan. Also, if you had a gap in coverage you will also get a separate Form 1095-A for each coverage period.
No, you should not receive a separate 1095-A for a stand-alone dental plan purchased through MNsure. If you purchased a pediatric stand-alone dental plan, your monthly premium amount will be added to the monthly premium for your medical plan in Part III Column A of your 1095-A. If you purchased a family stand-alone dental plan, but have a child under the age of 19 using the pediatric portion of those benefits, the premium for those pediatric benefits will be added to the total monthly premium as well.
If you have not received your Form 1095-A by February 1, you can call us at 1-855-366-7873 or 651-539-2099 to report this. You will need to call us after you receive your Form 1095-A if you are looking for additional information.
If the address in your MNsure account is not correct, your form will not be delivered. If you moved and did not inform MNsure of your address change, you will not receive a form unless you have a mail forwarding order in place. You need to call the MNsure Contact Center (at the number above) to update your address and request a new Form 1095-A. After your address change has been completed, the form will be mailed.
If you need MNsure to mail you a copy, please call us at 1-855-366-7873 pr 651-539-2099 as soon as possible.
If you moved and have not informed MNsure of your address change, your form may be forwarded by the U.S. Postal Service if you have a forwarding order in place. If there is no forwarding order, your form cannot be delivered. You need to call the MNsure Contact Center (1-855-366-7873 or 651-539-2099) to update your address and request a new Form 1095-A. After your address change has been completed, the form will be mailed.
You can find additional resources and links from the list below.
Some of Minnesota's health insurance companies are limiting the number of people they will accept into their individual market health insurance plans. These limits, or caps, will begin with the 2017 coverage year and will not affect your 1095-A forms for 2016 coverage.
You received Form 1095-B because you or someone in your household was enrolled in Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare during 2016. The Minnesota Department of Human Resources sends Form 1095-B, not MNsure. For additional information about Form 1095-B, please visit the Department of Human Services' website.
Form 1095-C, Employer-provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage, is used by employers with 50 or more full-time employees to report required information about offers of health coverage and enrollment in health coverage for their employees. You receive Form 1095-C if your employer is an applicable large employer and subject to the employer shared responsibility provision in the Affordable Care Act. Form 1095-C includes information about health insurance coverage offered to you and your family members by the employer. More information is available on the IRS website.
All households who were enrolled in a private health plan through MNsure, regardless of whether members of the household received financial assistance, will receive IRS Form 1095-A. Each member of a tax household who is on the same policy will be listed together on one form. MNsure will mail Form 1095-A to the policyholder's most recent residential address provided to us.
No, Form 1095-A is not issued for Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare. Form 1095-B is sent by the Minnesota Department of Human Services to those who had Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare coverage. You can find more information about Form 1095-B on the DHS website.
If some members of your household enrolled in a private health plan and other members enrolled in Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare, you will receive Form 1095-A for those family members enrolled in a private health plan. You will receive a Form 1095-B for those members of your household who were enrolled in Medical Assistance or MinnesotaCare. You do not need to get your Form 1095-B before filing your taxes.
If you were enrolled in coverage through MNsure during 2016 and you did not receive a Form 1095-A, you must call the MNsure Contact Center (1-855-366-7873 or 651-539-2099) as soon as possible.
Form 1095-A will not be sent to consumers who:
If you moved and did not inform MNsure of your address change, you need to call the MNsure Contact Center to update your address and request a new Form 1095-A. After your address change has been completed, the form will be mailed.
If you enrolled in a catastrophic plan, you will not receive a Form 1095-A, because these plans are not eligible for the premium tax credit. In 2016, the catastrophic plans listed below were offered on MNsure. If you purchased one of these plans you will not receive a Form 1095-A.
The premium amount for the applicable SLCSP is used to calculate the maximum amount of advanced premium tax credit that could be applied to your coverage each month and to compute the total amount of premium tax credit you can claim on your return.
For any month that an advanced premium tax credit was applied to your coverage, the amount provided in Column B of Part III of your Form 1095-A includes the premium for the second lowest cost silver plan (SLCSP) that MNsure determined applies to you and members of your household enrolled in the health plan.
For any month that you did not receive advanced premium tax credit, Column B of Part III of your Form 1095-A will be blank. If you or a member of your household wants to claim the premium tax credit on your tax return, you will need the premium amount for your applicable SLCSP to complete Form 8962 and claim the tax credit. You can find the premium amount for your applicable SLCSP here.
The information in Part III could be blank for a number of reasons.
Column A will be completed only for the months that you had coverage. For any month that you did not have coverage there will be no premium amount listed for that month, and you will see a blank field.
Column B and C will be blank if you did not receive advanced premium tax credit. These columns are only completed for the months when you received advanced premium tax credit. If there is a value in column B for a particular month then there will also be a value in column C for the same month.
Form 1095-A reflects the advanced premium tax credit (APTC) amount that was actually paid to the health plan for your coverage in 2016. This information is included in Column C of Part III. If APTC payments ere not applied to your coverage during 2016 then Columns B and C will be blank.
You can complete Form 8962 (Premium Tax Credit) to determine if you can claim the premium tax credit on your income tax return. Form 8962 is used to reconcile the amount of any APTC that was applied to your coverage during the year or to claim the premium tax credit if you are eligible.
If you have questions about Form 8962 or other tax-related questions, please visit www.irs.gov or talk with a tax preparer.
If you are receiving a tax credit, the law requires your insurer to keep you covered in your health insurance for a certain period of time, even if you aren't paying premiums. This is called a grace period.
If you don't start paying your premiums again by the end of the grace period (after 90 days), your coverage is terminated. Even if your coverage is terminated, your insurer counts you as covered during the first month you stopped paying.
If your coverage is terminated because you did not pay your monthly bills, the IRS will hold you responsible when you file your taxes for the tax credit applied to your coverage during the first month you stopped paying.
The insurance companies all have legal names and marketing names, which may or may not be the same. For the purposes of Form 1095-A, we are required by law to indicate the legal name in Part I Box 3, "Policy issuer's name." The list below shows the legal and marketing names.
If you or a member of your household reported a life event that resulted in a change to your health coverage during 2016, such as having a baby or moving, that change could have affected the information included on your Form 1095-A. Carefully review the monthly amounts in Part III of your Form 1095-A.
If you added a member of your family, such as a child or spouse, to your policy during 2016 and this is not represented on your Form 1095-A, then you will likely need a corrected Form 1095-A. You should contact MNsure at 1-855-366-7873 or 651-539-2099 as soon as possible.
You will need to identify which information on your form is not correct and explain why it is not correct.
MNsure's 1095 team will review your inquiry and you will receive a communication on the outcome. Please be prepared to provide your phone number and email address as well so the team working on your issue can follow up with you if needed.
If information provided on your 1095-A is incorrect and you contact MNsure to request a corrected form, we will review our records to determine whether a correction is appropriate. In some instances, MNsure will not send a corrected Form 1095-A.
Here is what you should know:
Please contact us as soon as possible if any of the following information provided on your 1095-A appears incorrect.
If you believe any of the information on the Form 1095-A is incorrect, please contact MNsure at 1-855-366-7873 or 651-539-2099 as soon as possible.
You will need to identify which information on your form is not correct and explain why it is not correct.
MNsure's 1095 team will review your inquiry and you will receive a communication on the outcome. Please be prepared to provide your phone number and email address as well so the team working on your issue can follow up with you.
If the "CORRECTED" box at the top of Form 1095-A is checked, that means MNsure has researched and corrected inaccurate enrollment information originally provided to you and to the IRS. You should use the information on the corrected form to file your tax return.
If the "VOID" box at the top of Form 1095-A is checked, that means you should not have received a Form 1095-A because you did not have coverage under a private health plan for any month in 2016. You are not eligible to claim the premium tax credit if you were not enrolled in a private health plan. Be sure you use this record when you complete and file your federal income tax return.
You might need to file an amended federal and Minnesota income tax return if:
If you file an amended federal return, you may also need to amend your Minnesota state tax return.
For more information, visit www.irs.gov and enter the keywords "amended return."
See details on who may qualify for an exemption and how to apply.
If you received an exemption from coverage for every month in 2016 and you were not enrolled in a private health plan for any month in 2016, then you do not need a Form 1095-A. Learn more about qualifying for an exemption and how to apply.