Making Sense of the Affordable Care Act
Contained within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are dozens of provisions including healthcare exchanges, mandates, credits, and rules, rules, rules galore.
For small businesses, the healthcare mandates for both the employer and the employee can be complicated.
In an article for Industrial Supply, Dr. Bart of Basi gives a concise explanation of Individual and Employer Mandates, and Government Tax Credits. He explains the rules of the ACA and what is considered an employee under the new law.
Basi states that the ACA will cause an increase in the cost of doing business for many employers and he outlines several strategies to deal with the new regulations and reduce costs. Read the full article by clicking here.
The final rule for the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOPs) was released. The PPACA requires that each state exchange operate a SHOP, which is a key component of the health insurance exchanges that are supposed to be up and running starting on Oct. 1 of this year as a central part of the PPACA. The SHOP is designed to assist small employers in providing health insurance to their employees.
The NSBA has informative articles on SHOPs, explaining how businesses with 25 or fewer employees can receive a temporary (two year) small employer tax credit, and on a final wellness program regulation that would increase the maximum permissible reward under a health-contingent wellness program offered in connection with a group health plan.