Affordable Care Act Employer Mandate Delayed Until 2015

Affordable Care Act Employer Mandate Delayed Until 2015

The Treasury Department announced this Tuesday that it will be delaying the employer “pay or play” mandate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which requires that employers with 50 or more employees offer health insurance to full-time employees working 30 or more hours per week or pay a penalty. The mandate was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2014, but will be delayed until 2015.

In a publicly released statement, the Treasury Department and the White House said that the decision to delay the mandate was based on feedback from employers that the system for reporting coverage was too complicated.

As a result of this feedback, the government plans to simplify the reporting requirements and provide organizations with an additional year to comply with the mandate. The delay will provide employers with more time to adapt their health benefits and test new reporting systems. To read the full statement from the Treasury Department, click here.

Despite the delay, the Treasury Department and White House encouraged employers to maintain or expand health care coverage during the 2014 transition period.

Employers should also be aware that the individual mandate which requires that individuals obtain health insurance, as well as the government’s plans to open health insurance exchanges on October 1 of this year, continue to remain on schedule until further notice.

Please note that by providing you with research information that may be contained in this article, ERC is not providing a qualified legal opinion. As such, research information that ERC provides to its members should not be relied upon or considered a substitute for legal advice. The information that we provide is for general employer use and not necessarily for individual application.