CCA 200851088: No exclusion found for a personal patient advocacy services plan

Plain-English summary

The shortest document in this release, and one sentence long: the writer does not see anything excludable from gross income.

The benefit under review was a personal patient advocacy services plan, identified only by the subject line. Arrangements of that kind give employees access to someone who helps them deal with the medical system, by sorting out claims, chasing providers, reviewing bills or coordinating care. The employer pays for the service and the employee uses it.

The exclusion the question was filed under is section 105, which covers amounts received by an employee through an employer-provided accident or health plan. That exclusion has a shape. It runs to amounts paid to reimburse the employee for expenses incurred for medical care, and to certain payments for permanent injury or loss of function, with the companion provision in section 106 excluding the value of the coverage itself. Help navigating the medical system is not a payment for medical care and is not coverage against the cost of it, which is the most likely reason the writer saw no exclusion to apply. If nothing excludes it, the general rule takes over and the value of the benefit is income to the employee.

That reading is supplied here as context. The release itself gives none. It identifies no provision, analyzes no requirement, and says only that the writer does not see anything excludable. There is no way to tell from the document which element of section 105 the writer thought was missing, or whether other exclusions were considered and rejected.

Two things make the release thin beyond its length. The facts are not in it, since the plan is named only in the subject line and whatever description accompanied the question is not part of the document. And the phrasing is personal rather than institutional: the writer reports what they do not see, which is a reaction to a proposal rather than a statement of a Service position.

This is a clean digital release rather than a scan, so no OCR correction was needed. Kept as released: the subject line, which opens a square bracket that is never closed and omits the space after the colon, "[RE:personal patient advocacy services plan"; and the send time, which the IRS released inside square brackets.

Ruling snapshot

• Question: Is the benefit provided under a personal patient advocacy services plan excludable from an employee's gross income?
• Outcome: Advice given, without analysis. The writer sees nothing in the arrangement that is excludable from gross income.
• Key authorities: IRC section 105, per the release's UILC code. The release itself cites no authority.

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA-923713-08 Number: 200851088
Office: ------------------------ Release Date: 12/19/2008

UILC: 105.00-00

From: ---------------
Sent: [Tuesday, September 23, 2008 7:13 AM]
To: --------------
Cc: ---------------
Subject: [RE:personal patient advocacy services plan

I don't see anything here that is excludable from gross income.