The House sub-committee investigating first-quarter earnings charges in connection with healthcare reform has canceled its planned April 21 hearing.

In a face-saving memo to the members of the Sub-committee on Oversight and Investigations, committee chairs Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak say they and companies alike need more time to digest the full effect of healthcare reform before holding a hearing on implementation.

The committee scheduled the hearing to challenge multibillion-dollar first-quarter non-cash charges to earnings—most notably from AT&T, Caterpillar, and Deere & Co.—in connection with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The companies were writing off deferred tax assets because the legislation eliminated a tax benefit related to a retiree drug subsidy. Accounting rules require companies to report the effect of such a tax event in the period in which the legislative or regulatory change is signed into law.

Congressmen were irked initially by the announcements and called a hearing to investigate. “The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern,” the sub-committee chairs wrote in inviting the companies to testify.

They changed their tune, however, in canceling the hearing. “As several of the companies recommended, the Sub-committee will closely monitor the implementation of the new law and will schedule hearings on the impact of the law as appropriate,” the chairmen wrote.

A Congressional staff investigation into the first-quarter charges concluded companies acted appropriately in taking the non-cash charges. “The filings report the present value of an adverse financial impact that will be incurred over decades,” the staff wrote in a memo summarizing their preliminary findings. “The actual impact on annual company cash flows will be only a fraction of the amount of the non-cash charges reported to the [Securities and Exchange Commission].”

The staff also reported that several companies they queried believed if the new law is implemented correctly, the overall impact on large employers could be beneficial, but it’s too early to be sure. “They also said that they could not make specific assessments that quantify these potential benefits until the details of several programs are developed,” the staff wrote.