Two years after the U.S. enacted healthcare reform, the government continues to issue new regulations piecemeal. Complying with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been especially arduous for self-insured companies that provide their own coverage to employees rather than paying a premium to an insurance provider.

Self-insured companies got more work last month when the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury issued a final rule on summaries of benefits and coverage that all companies must provide to new enrollees and special enrollees on the first day of the plan year beginning after Sept. 23.

The summaries were a hotly contested topic for self-insured companies, which argued that the new write-ups would duplicate information they are already required to provide under ERISA and could confuse employees. The government listened to such concerns, but rejected a proposal from business groups to exempt self-insured companies from the requirement to provide such summaries.