New Health Care Reform Laws - Impact on Camps as Employers

NEW !  Small Business Administration
Help for business owners regarding the new health care laws.
Web site and blog
and
New Health Exchanges for Small Businesses Delayed. Update April 2013

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA) were signed into law in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Included in these new “health care reform” laws was a mandate on certain large employers to provide health insurance to their employees beginning in 2014 (or pay a penalty of $2,000 per employee).

Applicability to Camps as Employers

The law requires employers with fifty or more “full-time employees or full-time equivalents” to provide health insurance to employees that meet minimal coverage requirements. For camps with seasonal operations, the law excludes employers whose workforce exceeds fifty full-time employees for 120 days or fewer during a calendar year if the employees in excess of fifty who were employed during that period of no more than 120 days were seasonal workers. As each organization is different, it is important that you determine now if you will be required to meet the mandate.

Impact on Small Business

The law requires applicable large employers to offer and contribute to their workers’ health insurance or pay a penalty. Small employers who offer health coverage may be able to receive a tax credit. Under the new law, effective for months beginning after Dec. 31, 2013, a large employer that 1) does not offer coverage for all its full-time employees, 2) offers minimum essential coverage that is unaffordable, or 3) offers minimum essential coverage that consists of a plan under which the plan’s share of the total allowed cost of benefits is less than 60%, is required to pay a penalty if any full-time employee is certified to the employer as having purchased health insurance through a state exchange with respect to which a tax credit or cost-sharing reduction is allowed or paid to the employee.  For more details, access this article.  In addition, the Small Business Administration has launched a new web site and blog to educate small business owners about the Affordable Care Act.  Access their new web site.

Important Tracking for the Year 2013

The calendar year of 2013 is important as it is the time that employers are required to track information about their employees, which will then be used to determine if they meet the requirement as a large employer. In preparation for this tracking, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has just released new proposed rules to help employers determine if they are included in the mandate.

Resources

While businesses, including camps, continue to learn how health care reform will impact them as employers and providers of health care to children, youth and adults, it is important that the camp community stay abreast of health care reform details and the reform movement. Below are links to important resources.