WASHINGTON – There is one small part of the Affordable Care Act that both Republicans and Democrats seem to agree on: A repeal of a provision that requires small businesses, including physicians, to file an IRS 1099 form for each vendor purchase of $600 or more.
A bill repealing that provision has passed both the House and the Senate this year, with more than three-quarters of Congress showing support. In his January 25 State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama indicated he agrees the provision was a mistake made under the ACA and should be repealed.
"We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses," he said.
What's holding things up, though is the price tag: $21.9 billion, in the form of lost tax revenues. Congress has so far been unable to overcome fiscal year 2012 budget differences between the parties.
The Senate version of the bill, introduced by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), passed on February 2. Passage of Rep. Dan Lungren's (R-Calif.) House version came a month later. Stabenow believes that a compromise between the two versions can be reached.
"Rather than focusing on issues that divide us, this is an issue that we can all come together on," she said. "If left unchecked, 40 million small businesses would see their IRS 1099 paperwork increase 2,000 percent."
The American Medical Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, American Farm Bureau, National Association of Realtors and other organizations have signaled support of the 1099 repeal.
AMA President Cecil Wilson, MD, said the new rules would place an administrative burden on physician practices, and repeal makes practical as well as economic sense.
"It is estimated that paperwork already takes up as much as a third of a physician's workday – time that could be better spent with patients – and this provision would only increase that burden," he said.
On the House floor March 3, Ways and Means Committee Chairman David Camp (R-Mich.) summed up the frustration that opponents of the legislation felt. "Some have even gone so far to say there have been 1,099 votes to repeal 1099s," he said.