Dive Brief:
- Employers looking to avoid unexpected, undeserved fines as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) need to act fast, according to SHRM.
- When employees buy health policies on their own through an exchange and receive premium tax credits to subsidize their purchase, it could trigger a notice from the government's health insurance marketplaces (public exchanges) to provide ACA-compliant group coverage to full-time employees.
- The situation involves employers with 50 or more full-time employees or equivalents during the prior year. Employers should move fast if the notices inaccurately report that employees weren't offered affordable minimum essential health coverage through their employer, Amy Gordon, an attorney with McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago, told SHRM.
Dive Insight:
Nicole Elliott, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Washington, D.C., told SHRM that there has been confusion among employers receiving the notices. For one thing, employees purchasing through the private exchanges may provide the wrong employer address (not the one for HR). Plus, being a relatively new occurrence, some employers have no idea what the notices are about.
The ACA requires the private marketplaces to send notices to employers if an employee received an advance payment of a premium tax credit, Elliott told SHRM, adding that appeals must be filed within 90 days of the date of the marketplace notice.
It's a very complex situation, so HR leaders who may be affected should read the entire SHRM article, and be sure to check the federal government's information on which decisions employers can appeal.