While the employer mandate portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been pushed back until 2015, there are other deadlines for company managers to meet before 2014 rolls around. With this in mind, BenefitsPro and John Haslinger, vice president for strategic advisory services provider ADP, recently partnered to provide business owners with some tips about what HR compliance issues to be concerned about before approaching deadlines.
One of the biggest ones to be aware of concerns the exchanges that will be opened next month. Prior to Oct. 1, each and every employee needs to have some sort of tangible document that clarifies when they will be ready to accept requests for coverage. If employees are hired after the Oct. 1 deadline, companies have two weeks to make them aware of the insurance marketplaces.
Something else to apprise workers of is the transitional reinsurance fee. At $63 for each worker, this money goes toward the insurance fund that covers people with pre-existing conditions, paid for by plan sponsors and insurers. Employers have to report their enrollment figures to the federal government no later than Nov. 15.
Up to now, employers may have been counting how many full-time employees based on how many people work at least 40 hours per week. The ACA has redefined this definition to 30 hours per week. Not only should companies accommodate this change in definition by recounting how many full-time workers they have, but they also need to include the time in which workers spend out of the office, such as for paid time off, unpaid leave and jury duty. Though this requirement doesn't have to be completed until 2015, BenefitsPro and Haslinger say that in order to provide the government with good numbers, the process should ideally start in October.
Additional deadlines to be cognizant of can be found at BenefitPro's website.
Employee benefit changes are something many companies have yet to do, according to a recent survey conducted by Research Now. Of the 2,000 consumers who responded to the poll, 70 percent said that they had yet to hear from their workplace about any changes made to their employer-sponsored plans.
