Health Care Affordability Act: It’s Only the Third Inning

Last month all you heard in the HR locker-rooms were complaints about all the texting going on. Employees were finding ways to bypass surveillance cameras and text blind. If a company uses Twitter to network socially about their business, how can they differentiate personal texting from business tweeting? OMG!

Well, this week, all the talk is about health care reform and how it affects the business and the employees. The reforms put in place by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are designed to phase in gradually, but some things happen pretty quickly. And just because the biggest changes don't take place until 2013 doesn’t mean that everyone doesn’t want to know right now what lies ahead. Our Safety Division Manager received demands for details from four of her Safety clients in the first two days, and our staffing staff got earfuls from clients and candidates alike. Of course, we in the HR Division were swamped with requests for info that wasn’t yet available.

So here are some of the basics that we know to date. As the presenter in a statewide webinar I attended last week said:”We are only in the third inning of what may be an extra-inning game, folks.” Translation: the law is passed but now the detailed regulations, standards, and enforcement get hammered out, and that will take awhile.

• Now: Small employers (less than 25 FT employees, or the equivalent in part-time) are immediately eligible for a 2010 tax break of up to 35% of the cost of premiums if they provide at least 50% of the cost of their employees’ healthcare coverage. During the week of April 19th , small business owners were sent postcards by the IRS, and the jokes about the IRS “finally taking a hike” were plentiful. For details about go to http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=220809,00.html?portlet=6.

• June: A temporary high-risk pool will be established to provide access to insurance for Americans previously denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

• September: Lots of things kick in:
o Health plans may not deny coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.
o Health plans must allow young people up to age 26 remain on their parent’s policy. Unless they are married. Not sure about school requirement yet and I have seen opposite answers to the question of whether the child must be a dependent.
o Health plans can no longer drop people when they get sick or place caps on lifetime coverage.
o Tight restrictions on annual policy limits. Details to be supplied by the Department of Health and Human Services.

One of the provisions of the PPACA that will impact employers and their employees is that some coverage plans will be grandfathered in even if they don't meet the minimum coverage requirements.

If we are in the 3rd inning now, I am hoping for some clarity and direction before the 7th inning stretch. For now, assure your employees that we are on their team. Not that there really is an HR locker room, but you know what I mean.