Affordable Care Act Deadline October 1, 2013

While the health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act are scheduled to open on October 1, most employers with 50 or fewer full-time employees — are not required to offer health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Even businesses with more than 50 full-time employees have gotten a one-year reprieve from penalties if they don’t offer insurance.

That said, at least as of today, all companies, regardless of size, are required to notify their employees about the Obamacare marketplaces.

Keith McMurdy, a benefits partner in the law firm of Fox Rothschild told Bloomberg’s Business Week that while it’s not clear how the requirement will be enforced, penalties for businesses that don’t comply could reach $100 per worker per day.

“An employer with 10 employees typically says, ‘I don’t have to worry about it, because I don’t have to offer insurance.’ A lot of them are going to miss the deadline and be unpleasantly surprised when they do,” he says. The notification requirement applies to any business regulated under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which covers all companies with at least one employee and $500,000 in annual revenue. “There are no exceptions for small employers, which means nearly everybody has to get out this notice to their employees.”

The U.S. Department of Labor has posted information about the notification requirement on its website and has provided model notices that can be used both by employers who offer insurance and by those who do not offer insurance:

With plans
dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/FLSAwithplans.pdf

Without plans
dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/FLSAwithoutplans.pdf.