Q: Does an employer’s cash-out option (i.e., cash-in-lieu of benefits) have any impact on the coverage’s affordability under the employer mandate? A: Yes. As background, under the employer mandate, the employer must offer at least one affordable, minimum value plan to all full-time employees, or risk a penalty. Affordability is based on the cost to the full-time employee for single-only coverage. Generally speaking, coverage is affordable if the cost of single-only coverage does not exceed 9.5 percent of that employee’s W2 wages or 9.5 percent of that employee’s rate-of-pay. (There is also a way to determine affordability based on the federal poverty line.)
Risk Management | Benefits | Employee Relations
By now you are probably overloaded with all the changes and deadlines that fall under the Affordable Care Act. As we muddle through all these rulings, there always seems to be a new regulation associated with it that we either did not know about or the information is vague. One that recently came to my attention was the fines businesses can incur if they reimburse employees for individual non-group health plans.
Benefits | Best Practices | Employee Relations
Many of my clients are interested in starting a wellness program, but tend to shy away. They are always surprised when I tell them that it is not difficult to implement a wellness program, and better yet, they don’t have to have a large budget to get started! Wellness programs are said to increase employee engagement and retention, reduce absenteeism, raise awareness of health issues, and drive down health care costs. If you are thinking of implementing a wellness program, here are some low-cost tips to help you get started.
Small Business Insurance Options and Benefits For those of you who haven’t heard, partially self-funded plans are the next big thing in small business insurance options. But how do you know if it’s right for your company? And if you decide it’s a good solution, what is your next step?
Here at Helios, I get numerous phone calls and emails each week from clients and coworkers with questions about their benefits plans. I receive questions from “Is my health insurance and HMO, PPO, or POS?” to “My employee worked a reduced schedule this month; do I have to take away their benefits?” and even as broad as “Is the recent health care legislation going to affect my organization?”. It appears as though people are increasingly confused and wary of making the wrong choice given the complications of the Affordable Care Act and the complexity of offering multiple benefit plans.
