Introduction

This topic provides a description of the audience for this subject, sources of information from the government agencies, and a few disclaimers.

Audience

This subject has been written for employers (service bureau or actual employer) as a tool to help you understand your requirements within the employer shared responsibility section of the Affordable Care Act (ACA Affordable Care Act) that went into effect January 1, 2014.

Overview of Tasks

The major tasks to prepare for the ACA regulations are:

• Task 1 – Identify Your Employees

Categorizing your employees as full-time, part-time, variable hour, and seasonal.

• Task 2 – Run the MPI_1403 Report
• Task 3 – Determine Affordability for Employees

Is the employee’s premium contribution affordable?

• Task 4 – Determine Whether to Pay or Play

Base your decision on the calculations of how each would impact your company.

• Task 5 – Update Timekeeping & Code Groups

Add unpaid hours tracking.

• Task 6 – Notify Employees

Links & Documents

The “government agencies” that are sometimes mentioned in general—but not by name—include the Internal Revenue Service (IRS Internal Revenue Service), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Department of Labor (DOL).

Sources of information, at the time of this writing, include:

• Internal Revenue Service
• http://www.irs.gov/uac/Affordable-Care-Act-Tax-Provisions
• Notice 2012-58: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-12-58.pdf
  
• Department of Health and Human Services
• http://www.healthcare.gov/
• http://www.healthcare.gov/law/timeline/
  
• Department of Labor — FAQs on ACA implementation
• http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-aca11.html
  
• Congressional Research Service
• http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41159.pdf
  
• Kaiser Family Foundation
• http://healthreform.kff.org/

Disclaimers

• At the time of publication, the final regulations have not been finalized by the IRS/DOL/HHS.

In addition, reports due to these agencies have not been written or finalized.

• What is provided by this subject is based on the best information MPAY had at the time of publication. Examples and samples herein are based on the proposed regulations.
• The samples and test cases are examples of simple scenarios. Each employer may have situations that are more complex and should talk to their health care coverage provider and tax adviser for more information.
• We have provided this subject to help you understand the law and your responsibilities “in layman’s terms.” However, especially since the regulations and reports have yet to be either written or finalized, this subjectcan not and should not be considered to be the “last word” on your actions, calculations, and responsibilities.

If you have any questions, please e-mail them to ACA@mpay.com.