Stick with Montage for further developments, but to sum up, the Employer Shared Responsibility provision appears to be delayed entirely for employers of 50-99 until 2016, while there is only a minimal change for employers larger than 100. For employers larger than 100, during the 2015 year, you will satisfy the requirement by offering coverage to at least 70% of your qualified employees–this is down from a 95% requirement.
As you know, you can always count on Montage for the latest news on the PPACA. We strive to be on the forefront of your reliable sources. We will dissect the exact changes for you in a longer article, but in the interim, we wanted to give you an overview. The Obama Administration has announced that it will alter the Employer Shared Responsibility provision by phasing in the penalty assessed on large employers who are not offering coverage.
Initially, the ACA employer penalty was set to come alongside the individual mandate on 1-1-2014. However, after realizing the reporting structures may not be fully in place, the Administration announced in early July of 2013 that employers who do not offer insurance will not face the penalty for the 2014 year. However, consistent with the legislation, employers who employ an average of at least 50 full time employees (or FTEs) were going to still need to offer qualifying coverage or face a penalty beginning 1-1-2015.
Well, the due date to get coverage or face a fine has changed again. For employers with 100 or more employees, there is no change, at least as of now, to the looming penalty start date, which remains 1-1-2015. However, for those employers who qualify as a “large employer” under the wording in the bill, but average less than 100 employees, the fine is delayed until 2016.
For a couple of additional references, see:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/10/news/economy/obamacare-employer/
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-obama-delay-healthcare-mandate-20140210,0,5381642.story#axzz2sxcCd9s0
