(HR) Obamacare employer mandate delayed for some businesses

The rules for employers under the Affordable Care Act have changed again.

The Obama administration announced Monday it will give employers with between 50 and 100 employees an extra year to comply with the ACA’s employer mandate.

Those employers are still required to report on their workers and coverage in 2015, but won’t be required to provide health insurance to full-time workers until 2016.

Previously, the government delayed enforcement of its employer mandate — set to start Jan. 1 this year — until 2015.

“While about 96 percent of employers are not subject to the employer responsibility provision, for those employers that are, we will continue to make the compliance process simpler and easier to navigate,” said Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur in a statement. “Today’s final regulations phase in the standards to ensure that larger employers either offer quality, affordable coverage or make an employer responsibility payment starting in 2015 to help offset the cost to taxpayers of coverage or subsidies to their employees.”

The new rules also change the threshold for employers with more than 100 employees to offer coverage to only 70 percent of their employees by next year or face a penalty. Now they do not have to hit the threshold of 95 percent until 2016.

The news rippled across the web Monday afternoon, with USA Today pointing out the new rule means volunteer firefighters, part-time teachers and adjunct professors who teach less than 15 hours a week will not be counted as full-time employees.

Source: Washington Business Journal