The health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act will open on Oct. 1. Most small employers—those 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. But all companies, regardless of size, are required to notify their employees about the Obamacare marketplaces. The state and federal insurance exchanges are websites on which individuals and small businesses can shop for health plans. Though the deadline is less than a month away, many small businesses don’t know they have to notify employees. 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. Penalties for businesses that don’t comply could reach $100 per worker per day.
If you are an employer and included in the list of covered employers below, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires you to provide copies of one of the following notices to all of your employees:
You must provide these insurance marketplace availability notices to your employees by Oct. 1, 2013. After this date, these notices must be part of your new hire documentation on an ongoing basis. This is a mandatory requirement issued and regulated by the U.S. Department of Labor as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Employers covered by FLSA reporting requirement:
- Businesses with more than $500,000 in gross receipts
- Hospitals
- Institutions primarily engaged in the care of the sick, elderly, mentally ill, or disabled, who are residents on the premises
- Schools for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted
- Preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education
- Federal, state and local government agencies
