Are you an employer? Then take note. As of July 18, 2017, the latest Senate healthcare bill is dead (for now anyway) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is still alive and kicking.
Consequently, any significant changes to health care and reporting for employers will likely not happen soon, as it will take time before any healthcare legislation is agreed upon, signed and put into effect. So what does that mean to employers?
It means ACA remains the law of the land. To avoid unnecessary angst and possible assessments or penalty, let’s review what employers should be doing.
Employee Hours and Employer Offers
The ACA requires applicable large employers (ALEs) to offer appropriate and affordable health coverage to their full-time employees who work an average of 30 or more hours per week (or an average of 130 hours per month). Employers are also required to track the hours worked by part-time and variable-hour employees to determine if they should be offered coverage like all other full-time employees. Employers should be tracking part-time/variable-hour workers and preparing to offer insurance coverage to those who qualify.
Employer Filings
The Employer Shared Responsibility rule of the ACA requires employers to file annual information returns with the IRS and send summary statements (1095s) to verify the “minimum essential coverage” as mandated by ACA is being met. Employers should be working with all involved departments, reviewing employee data, ensuring that any errors are corrected, and making preparations for reporting 2017 data to the IRS on 1095s and the 1094 transmittal.
Employers should NOT modify or eliminate any of their ACA processes on the hunch that the law might be changed. Until ACA is repealed or modified, employers don’t have much choice but to comply with the law.
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Confident you’re on the right track for ACA employer compliance for 2017? Need to switch ACA vendors for better service and perhaps even better pricing? Contact Us! You may be able to switch for no-to-low on-boarding fees.
