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On May 8, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published 2013-02 Technical Release to provide employers guidance on the provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that requires employee notification of health care insurance coverage options. Only employers that employ one or more individuals and who are engaged in, or produce goods for interstate commerce are subject to FLSA requirements. The FLSA generally does not cover businesses with less than $500,000 in annual dollar volume of business. However, we recommend compliance with FLSA guidelines in this case, just to be on the safe side.
Notice Requirements
Beginning today, October 1, 2013, employers are required to notify each employee of their coverage options under the new law. In addition, starting in 2014, employers will have 14 days from an employee’s start date to provide insurance coverage options. The notice must be written in language that can be understood by the average employee, and may be provided via first-class mail or sent electronically.
Model Notices
With Technical Release 2013-02, DOL provided two model notices that satisfy the content requirements – one for employers that do not offer a health plan, and one for employers that do offer a health plan to some or all employees. Employers may modify the model language as long as it meets the content requirements, but we don’t recommend it.
Non-Compliance Fee Waived ($100 Per Day, Per Employee Fine for Non-Compliance)
Business owners will not be fined if they don’t provide notification to their employees about the new Health Insurance Marketplace this year per notice on the SBA website, Small Business Administration. However, as blogger Shawn Perry writes on the SBA website comments section: