Associated Industries wants to remind its members that every employer is required to provide each of its employees with a written notice of the coverage options available under health care exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act no later than October 1.
Several AIM member law firms called our attention to this amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The FLSA requires every employer subject to the Act, whether they offer a health care plan or not, to provide the information to their employees.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the exchanges are supposed to be operational by January 1, 2014, with open enrollment for coverage to begin on October 1. Therefore, employers must provide the notice to their employees no later than October 1. After that, each new employee is required to be provided with the notice at the time of hiring.
The notice must include the following information:
Services provided by the exchanges.
Contact information for the exchanges.
Employee’s eligibility for premium tax credits or cost-sharing reductions in situations where the employer’s share of the employer-sponsored health plan is less than 60 percent of the total costs and the employee purchases a qualified health plan through an exchange.
Possibility of losing employer contributions to any employer-sponsored health plans if the insurance is purchased through an exchange.
Possibility that a portion or all of an employer’s contributions to employer-sponsored health plans may be excluded from income for tax purposes.
The Department of Labor has posted model notices on its website one for employers who do not offer a health plan, (CLICK HERE) and another for employers who do offer a health plan (CLICK HERE). These model notices, when properly completed, generally contain all of the information required under the ACA.
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