Has anyone else been tackling the ACA Healthcare Reporting for this year?
There are two things I am having an issue with, hoping someone out there has already tackled these issues:
1. When creating the AIR submissions for the 1094/5 B & C, the documentation from the IRS says to compute the check sum "Do not attempt to program the calculation. The specifications are included in the IETF RFC 1321 and are quite complex. The transmitter will have to do the research to locate and obtain an algorithm that they can use. Note: The transmitter calculated Checksum must exactly match the IRS calculated Checksum for the same file." Anyone got the algorithinm? I can't find one anywhere.
2. The XML schemas are requiring to have the size of the file that you are submitting inside the file, so how does one get that with RM/COBOL?
Hi Amy.
We just completed our certification. We are using the 'UI' method (file upload via browser).
You are really submitting two files, the data file which contains the 1094/1095 form data, and a manifest file that contains the checksum and file length of the data file. So, one first creates the data file, then obtains the checksum and length, and then places that information in the manifest file.
I am attaching a C# program that can be compiled as a console application (I used the Community Edition of Visual Studio - check license qualifications) into an EXE. This small program creates an XML file containing the checksum and length of the file it is provided. You can invoke it using CALL "SYSTEM".
As a side note, just a few days ago the IRS issued a one month extension for filing.
Tom Morrison
Hill Country Software
Has anyone else been tackling the ACA Healthcare Reporting for this year?
There are two things I am having an issue with, hoping someone out there has already tackled these issues:
1. When creating the AIR submissions for the 1094/5 B & C, the documentation from the IRS says to compute the check sum "Do not attempt to program the calculation. The specifications are included in the IETF RFC 1321 and are quite complex. The transmitter will have to do the research to locate and obtain an algorithm that they can use. Note: The transmitter calculated Checksum must exactly match the IRS calculated Checksum for the same file." Anyone got the algorithinm? I can't find one anywhere.
2. The XML schemas are requiring to have the size of the file that you are submitting inside the file, so how does one get that with RM/COBOL?
Another solution: RFC 1321 specifies the MD5 cryptographic hash algorithm. There's an implementation of that in MF COBOL on the Community Wiki:
community.microfocus.com/.../2761.demo-how-to-use-md5-encryption.aspx
(Unfortunately, the Wiki page insists on referring to it as "MD5 encryption", which is incorrect; MD5 is not a cipher. But the program works regardless.)
It might require some changes for Acu.
Has anyone else been tackling the ACA Healthcare Reporting for this year?
There are two things I am having an issue with, hoping someone out there has already tackled these issues:
1. When creating the AIR submissions for the 1094/5 B & C, the documentation from the IRS says to compute the check sum "Do not attempt to program the calculation. The specifications are included in the IETF RFC 1321 and are quite complex. The transmitter will have to do the research to locate and obtain an algorithm that they can use. Note: The transmitter calculated Checksum must exactly match the IRS calculated Checksum for the same file." Anyone got the algorithinm? I can't find one anywhere.
2. The XML schemas are requiring to have the size of the file that you are submitting inside the file, so how does one get that with RM/COBOL?
Michael Wojcik writes, "It might require some changes for Acu."
And it definitely would require some changes for RM/COBOL! 
I considered implementing in COBOL (I have published CRC-32 etc in RM/COBOL] but the C# program was so drop-dead easy that I simply could not justify the effort. The IRS waits for no one (except, of course, the IRS...).
