Employer Mandate Delayed

On July 2, 2014, the Obama administration delayed part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or health care reform law) that affects employers. The parts of the law listed below will now go into effect in 2015 instead of 2014:

1.        Employers will not have to report certain information to the IRS. This has been referred to as “employer reporting requirements.” We are waiting for the IRS to give details on what requirements this includes.

2.        The rule that says large employers have to offer coverage to full-time workers or pay a penalty. “Large employer” in this case is a business that has 50 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees (that work an average of 30 hours a week).

3.        The rule that says coverage offered by large employers cannot be more than 9.5% of a worker’s pay for self-only coverage.

The delay notice changes the employer mandate part of the law only. The individual mandate and other parts of the law are unchanged. We are evaluating the impact and waiting for more information. The IRS has said it will release more details about the delay soon. We will share more information as soon as possible.