Affordable Care Act Information for Employers
The Affordable Care Act is a federal statute that creates new responsibilities for employers. Employers who have fewer than 25 “full-time equivalent” employees can qualify for a small business health care tax credit if they pay at least 50% of the employees’ health insurance premium costs and offer coverage through the Small Business Health Options Program (“SHOP”) Marketplace. Larger employers face new requirements to insure their employees—and steep penalties, should they fail to comply with the requirements. In 2015, employers with 100 or more full-time equivalent (“FTE”) employees must offer coverage to 70% of those employees and their dependents. And beginning in 2016, all employers with 50 or more FTE employees must offer coverage to 95% of those employees and their dependents.
For an employer to determine whether it comes within these new requirements, the employer must first calculate its number of full-time equivalent (“FTE”) employees. Each employee who works 30 hours or more per week, over at least 120 days per year, is a full-time employee. But hours worked by part-time employees also add to the FTE number; if, for example, five part-time employees work a total of 60 hours per week, their employer would need to add two FTE employees to its total. Notably, affiliated companies may be treated as a single employer under the Act. As a result, three companies each having 20 FTE employees could either: 1) qualify for small business health care tax credits, if they are treated as three separate employers; or 2) be subject to the employer coverage mandate, if they are sufficiently connected to be treated as a single employer. It is therefore particularly important that companies who share ownership or control, or who otherwise coordinate their business activities, consult with counsel to determine their employer status under the ACA.
Once an employer confirms that it is subject to the employer mandate, it has more decisions to make. For each year that the employer does not offer any insurance coverage to its employees, it will face a $2,000 penalty per FTE, minus the first 30 employees (or, in 2015, minus the first 80 employees). To avoid such penalties, the employer should offer its employees an “affordable” plan that provides “minimum value” under the ACA. These calculations are complex. Generally, “minimum value” requires that the employer pays at least 60% of the plan’s costs, and “affordable” requires that an employee’s premiums cost no more than 9.5% of his or her household income. If the employer’s plan is deemed to not provide minimum value, or to not be affordable, the employer will be fined $3,000 for any full-time employees who receive federal premium subsidies for marketplace coverage. Some employers may, nevertheless, opt for “skinny plans” that may not meet the required minimum essential coverage under the Act, but which will avoid the $2,000-per-employee penalty and reduce coverage costs.
For more information about how the Affordable Care Act may affect your business, please contact board-certified health care attorney Scott Chase or employment lawyer Julie Heath.
