Healthcare Reform is a long, drawn-out and often confusing process on its own. Adding another change, like Benefit Credits may seem like a jumbled mess that you wouldn’t want to touch.
Don’t worry, though! It’s much easier than you think. Let us break it down for you, and make it a breeze.
The Affordable Care Act for Employers
While most of the media has focused on the individual side of the Affordable Care Act, there is another side: Business and employer healthcare.
The most basic part of this law is that employers with 50 or more full time employees will be subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility. That means that employers with more than 50 full-time employees (or equivalents) have to offer health insurance coverage that meets the ten essential benefits to their full time employees and their dependents. To clarify, there are a few things we should note.
The Ten Essential Benefits a qualified health plan will include are:
- Ambulatory patient services (outpatient care you get without being admitted to a hospital);
- Emergency services;
- Hospitalization (such as surgery);
- Maternity and newborn care (care before and after your baby is born);
- Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment (this includes counseling and psychotherapy);
- Prescription drugs;
- Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices (services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions gain or recover mental and physical skills);
- Laboratory services;
- Preventative wellness services and chronic disease management; and
- Pediatric services;
We should also note how to account for full-time employees or their equivalents. Fifty full-time employees or a mixture of full-time and part-time employees that equals at least 50 employees are responsible for offering health coverage or paying a penalty. The penalty won’t begin until January 1, 2015, but keep in mind that the number of employees you have in 2014 will determine whether you’ll be subject to the Shared Responsibility Payment for 2015.
This penalty also has some outlines. The Employer Shared Responsibility payment is calculated different ways and is either $2000 or $3000 per employee per year depending on the circumstance. You don’t have to make a payment on the first 30 full-time equivalent employees. Keep in mind though, that the Employer Shared Responsibility penalty is not tax-deductible.
Now that we know the basics of the Affordable Care Act for employers and businesses, let’s look at how Benefit Credits can simplify your benefits for you and our employees.
Benefit Credits and The Affordable Care Act
Benefit Credits can simply your benefits, no matter the size of your business, while keep your business compliant with the healthcare reform.
The simple system that Benefit Credits utilizes allows small employers to offer competitive benefits for a fixed cost, giving employees access to affordable health coverage on the individual marketplace, in addition to other benefits.
For larger employers, Benefit Credits can give employees access to a group plan that’s already in place, in addition to other benefits, like vision, dental, or life for instance.
For employers, Benefit Credits offers the simplest and most comprehensive fixed cost benefit program. Once employers have enlisted in Benefit Credits’ system, it’s all very easy: Employers determine a Benefit Credits amount. That is, they select an allowance for each employee to spend on their benefits. Benefit Credits takes it from there and assists employees in selecting plans that fit their needs and helping enroll employees if they need to assistance. Otherwise, employees can enroll themselves online. Then, once Benefit Credits has taken care of the applications and enrollment, the employer will receive one list bill for all of the employee’s selected benefits. You’ll always be guaranteed to pay the amount you agreed to, and that’s it.
If you still have questions, are unsure, or would just like to learn more about the process, we would love to help you. Please contact us or call 1-608-371-9743 today to speak with a member of the Benefit Credits team who can answer all your questions, or even show you a demo.