Affordable Care Act: Employer Responsibilities

by | Mar 18, 2013 | PKF Texas - The Entrepreneur's Playbook®, Tax and Accounting Desk

Greg: This is PKF Texas, the entrepreneur’s playbook. I’m Greg Price, director of consulting solutions and I’m here again with Tina Winograd, a payroll specialist in our accounting department at PKF Texas. Tina, the last time you were here, you talked about some provisioning coming as it pertains to the Affordable Care Act. Is that true?

Tina: Yes, the employer shared provision of the Affordable Care Act is schedule to start in 2014, but employers need to prepare this year.

Greg: What are the employer’s shared responsibilities provisions?

Tina: Well, its purpose is to encourage business owners to provide affordable, quality health insurance to full time employees, and full time being 30 hours.

Greg: Can you give some more specifics about that?

Tina: First off, it only affects employers with 50 or more full time or equivalent employees. The look back period to determine the employee count is this year, 2013. The health coverage also must be offered to at least 95 percent of its full time employees and provide minimum value, meaning the employer covers at least 60 percent of the cost.

Greg: So what happens if an employer decides they don’t want to offer health care insurance? What happens then?

Tina: Then the company will be penalized based on a set calculation and that subject itself can be a whole show on its own.

Greg: Yeah, I’ve heard a little bit about that. We’ll probably have you back another time to talk about that and then I think another thing people are looking for are these affordable insurance exchanges. Is there a place where we can direct people to get more information about that?

Tina: Yes, the Department of Health and Human Services is developing rules for the exchanges. More information will come later. Now, this may be a good time for employers wavering on offering health insurance to follow through.

Greg: Tina, thanks for providing that information. I know I learned something about the shared responsibilities act today and I know that our viewers will as well. Thank you. This has been another Thought Leader Production brought to you by PKF Texas, the entrepreneur’s playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter and if you’d like to get more information about this key provision of the affordable care act, go to PKFtexas.com/taxnews.

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