Notify Your Employees of Insurance Changes by Oct. 1
Don’t miss the nearing deadline to provide your employees with a health insurance exchange notice, as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Not many features of the Affordable Care Act are set in stone. But, one deadline is quickly approaching. All employers, including farmers, must provide a notice to their employees about the new healthcare reform exchanges.
The deadline is Oct. 1 and applies to all employers, whether or not an employer offers its employees health care coverage. But according to the U.S. Department of Labor there are no fines or penalties for noncompliance.
Paul Neiffer, The Farm CPA, says that this is an important but simple requirement. "The IRS has provided the document that is relatively straightforward," he says. "All they have to do is hand it to the employees."
Neiffer’s advice would be to have each employee sign a simple voucher to say they received the notification. Then you can keep the signed voucher in their employee file.
The U.S. Department of Labor has issued two model exchange notices: one for employers who do not offer a health plan and one for employers who do.
Download PDFs of the notices:
For employees with insurance plans
For employees without insurance plans
Neiffer says farmers should explore the new health care option. "I think some of the provisions and changes are going to be beneficial," he says.
To see if these new options would be beneficial for your operation, Neiffer suggests you visit with both your tax advisor and insurance representative. You can also contact him with questions at paul.neiffer@claconnect.com or via his The Farm CPA blog.
