It’s September 19: Did You Notify Your Employees About Health Care Options?

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As part of new regulations created under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are required to notify their full- and part-time employees by October 1, 2013, regarding the availability of health care coverage, regardless of whether they offer health coverage or not. In general, a business is subject to FLSA if it has at least two employees and does at least $500,000 in business per year, as reported by The National Law Review.

The Department of Labor has created model notices that employers can use to send to their employees to comply with the law. There is a model notice for employers that offer a health plan to some or all employees and another for employers who do not offer a health plan.

The notices must inform the employee:

  1. Of the existence of the Health Insurance Marketplace (referred to in the statute as the exchange), including a description of the services provided by the marketplace and the manner in which the employee may contact the Marketplace to request assistance;
     
  2. That the employee may be eligible for a premium tax credit under section 36B of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) if the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the Marketplace. (This is only if the employer plan’s share of the total allowed costs of benefits provided under the plan is less than 60 percent of such costs.)
     
  3. That if the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the exchange, the employee may lose the employer contribution (if any) to any health benefits plan offered by the employer and that all or a portion of such contribution may be excludable from income for federal income tax purposes.

Booksellers with questions on health reform should contact ABA Senior Public Policy Analyst David Grogan at (800) 637-0037, ext. 7562 or via e-mail at [email protected].