“On Thursday, the long-anticipated “employer mandate” kicks in, meaning businesses with 50 or more employees need to start offering their workers health insurance plans, if they’re not doing so already.
Well, for the most part. Nothing is ever simple when it comes to health reform, especially in the group market. Employers with between 50 and 100 full-time workers may be able to postpone the mandate if they meet certain criteria.
Also, the “pay or play” mandate won’t begin on Jan. 1, 2016 for mid-size employers with non-calendar year-based plans, said Sarah Friend, consultant at The Partners Group. They won’t be subject to the mandate until the first day of the plan year in 2016.
The employer mandate was originally schedule to go into effect in January 2014, but it was pushed back a year, after business groups raised a hue and cry over the complexity of the requirements.
Now the deadline is looming. Employers with 100 or more workers must start providing health benefits to at least 70 percent of their full-time employees starting Jan. 1 (and 95 percent in 2016) to avoid a “sledgehammer penalty.”
However, they may still be at risk of “tack hammer” penalties if they don’t offer affordable minimum essential coverage to all their full-timers if an employee subsequently gets federally subsidized insurance on the public exchange.
Employers who don’t offer insurance will be …”
Originally poster by Biz Journal. Full article can be found at http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/blog/health-care-inc/2014/12/remember-that-employer-mandate-it-kicks-in-this.html
