Large employers with fewer than 100 Full-Time Employees got some good news. The rules for employers with at least 50 full-time employees provide transition relief with respect to all of 2015 and, for non-calendar plan years that begin in 2015, for the portion of that 2015 plan year that falls in 2016.

Key points to the ruling include:

  • Employers with fewer than 100 workers won’t have to provide health insurance until 2016
  • Larger firms have to cover at least 70 percent of the workforce starting next year.
  • Employers with fewer than 100 workers will have to certify to the government that they haven’t fired workers to get under the threshold and qualify for the delay until 2016. They also must certify they won’t drop health plans they already offer.
  • Among other exemptions, employers won’t have to cover seasonal workers, those employed less than six months.

These regulations phase in the standards in an attempt to ensure that larger employers either offer quality, affordable coverage or pay a penalty starting in 2015 to help offset the cost to taxpayers of coverage or subsidies to their employees.

Stay tuned, I’m sure we’ll see more changes.