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Next year’s window for signing up for insurance under the health law will clash with Christmas, but not Halloween, as part of a final rule released late Friday by federal officials. Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are still affected as well. Open enrollment for 2016 coverage under the Affordable Care Act will start Nov. 1, 2015 and end Jan. 31, 2016, according to revised regulations. Obama administration officials had previously suggested starting Oct. 1, 2015 and finishing Dec. 15, 2015. (Radnofsky, 2/20)

The Obama administration is moving up next year’s healthcare enrollment period by about three weeks, designating Jan. 31 as the last day to sign up. Enrollment would begin Nov. 1, instead of Nov. 15, and would last three months, according to a final rule released late Friday. (Ferris, 2/20)

The Obama administration has blocked health plans without hospital benefits that many large employers argued fulfilled their obligations under the Affordable Care Act. Companies with millions of workers, mainly in lower-wage industries such as staffing, retailing, restaurants and hotels that had not offered health coverage previously, had been flocking toward such insurance for 2015. Plans lacking substantial coverage of hospital and physician services do not qualify as "minimum value" coverage under the law and so do not shield employers from fines of $3,000 or more per worker, the Department of Health and Human Services said late Friday. (Hancock, 2/23)

In the latest in a long string of delays in enforcing the rules under the health care overhaul, the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that they will wait until summer to start enforcing financial penalties on small businesses that provide so-called Health Reimbursement Arrangements to their employees. Under HRAs, employers provide spending accounts that their workers can use to cover a portion of the cost of buying individual health plans. The arrangements, which give employers a tax-free means to help pay for their workers’ health costs, do not comply with insurance standards in the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, according to Treasury guidance issued in the fall of 2013. (Harrison, 2/19)

Like many families nowadays, the Dufeks had a health plan with a high deductible — $4,000 in their case. But that alone is not what overwhelmed them. The blow came first from the health plan's high cap on out-of-pocket expenses, and then from the family's facing the same expense again with the start of a new year. That's a risk that remains even with the new limits on out-of-pocket expenses under the Affordable Care Act. (Boulton, 2/21)