With the year winding its way to a close, business owners are taking another look at the employee benefit plans being offered to their workers, particularly those who are participating in the federal exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act. While the government says that these marketplaces are performing better than they did during last year's botched rollout, employer frustration and uncertainty is causing many entrepreneurs to question that assertion.
Steven Friedman, co-chair for Littler Mendelson, P.C. in New York, told Business Insurance that open enrollment – which begins Nov. 15 – will likely prove to be a frustrating period for companies that offer health coverage to their staff.
"There are quite a few hidden traps in the reform law's mandate that could ensnare employers," said Friedman.
Adam Solander, associate at Epstein & Green P.C., based in Washington, D.C., added that the reporting requirements that the ACA calls for is the main issue that many firms are having to deal with.
No shortage of regulatory requirements
There are a variety of mandates that come with the ACA for business owners. One of which is to inform the government that workers have been offered minimum essential coverage as well as certainty that what employees are contributing for premium payments fall inside of the cost-sharing limits prescribed under the health care law mandate. Starting in January, all employers who have at least 100 full-time workers – which for purposes of the law is defined as those who work 30 hours per week or more – are offered health care benefits. In 2016, employers with 50 full-time employees or more will fall under the mandate.
What's driving a lot of the frustration, Business Insurance reported, is the Internal Revenue Service's failure to finalize reporting forms and filing instructions that employers are being told to use. Experts with knowledge on the issue say that guidance has been hard to come by and the instruction that has been given is often confusing.
"I'm waiting on final guidance from the agencies as to what it is they're actually looking for and in what form," Bruce Elliott, compensation and benefits manager for the Society for Human Resource Management, told the insurance news source. "I'm putting things in place now that at least let us track enrollees and the levels of coverage we offer to make sure it meets the affordability threshold. But in terms of actually reporting on all of this, we really don't know what to do yet."
Despite the attention the ACA has been given from candidates for office – both those in favor and opposed to the mandate – a large percentage of people aren't aware of the open enrollment scheduled for mid-November. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said they didn't know the second sign-up period was scheduled for this month, based on a survey performed by Kaiser Family Foundation. Approximately two-thirds indicated that they knew "only a little" or next to nothing.
Business owners participating in the exchanges are being urged to review with their workers what the open enrollment process entails, which individuals can find out more about at HealthCare.gov.
