Some info to share:
New Health Care Notice Due to Employees by 10/1
The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, requires all employers to provide a health care notice to their employees by October 1, 2013. This notice is required whether or not you provide health coverage to your employees, and the notice must be provided to all employees, both full-time and part-time. Every new employee hired on or after October 1, 2013, must be given the notice within 14 days of starting work.
The purpose of the notice is to inform employees that they can get health insurance through their state’s Health Insurance Marketplace, as well as providing contact information and a description of the services offered by the Marketplace. The notice also informs employees that they may be eligible for a premium tax credit if they purchase a qualified health plan through the Marketplace. The notice explains that if the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the Marketplace, the employee may lose his/her employer’s contribution (if any) to any health benefit plan currently offered by the employer, and all or a portion of such contribution may be excluded for federal income tax purposes.
The federal government has published 2 versions of the form: one for employers currently providing health coverage to employees and one for those employers who do not. Unfortunately, both versions have the same number [OMB No. 1210-0149] and the front page of both versions look very similar, so you need to look carefully to make sure you use the right version.
You can create your own version of the form as long as it contains all of the information in the government-approved forms.
Employers that currently offer a health plan for employees: Your version of the notice is 3 pages and has a blank towards the bottom of the first page that you need to fill in with the name of the person your employees can contact about their health insurance. This can be someone in your office, like the person in charge of Human Resources, it can be the contact person at your health insurance company.
Before giving the notice to your employees, you need to fill in the information requested in Part B of the form (questions 3 through 12), which is basic information about your company. You will also need to answer the questions in Part B regarding your current health plan. Please note: The information requested on page 3 of the notice is optional. You do not have to fill out questions 13 through 16.
http://www.fuba.org/upload_documents/FLSAwithplans.pdf
Employers that currently do not offer a health plan for employees: Your version of the notice is only 2 pages and contains a statement on page 2 telling the employee “You are not eligible for health insurance coverage through this employer. You and your family may be able to obtain health coverage through the Marketplace, with a new kind of tax credit that lowers your monthly premiums and with assistance of out-of-pocket costs.”
Before giving the notice to your employees, you will need to fill in the information requested in Part B of the form (questions 3 through 12), which is basic information about your company.
http://www.fuba.org/upload_documents/FLSAwithoutplans.pdf