Get to Know the Health Care Law’s Employer Shared Responsibility Payment

Under the Affordable Care Act, applicable large employers – those with 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees – are required to take some new actions. To prepare for 2016, if your organization is an ALE, you need to track information each month in 2015, including:

• Whether you offered full-time employees and their dependents minimum essential coverage that meets the minimum value requirements and is affordable
• Whether your employees enrolled in the minimum essential coverage you offered

You need to track this information because you could be subject to an employer shared responsibility payment if your organization falls into either of these circumstances:

• You offered coverage to fewer than 70 percent of your full-time employees and their dependents in 2015 and at least one full-time employee enrolled in coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace and receives a premium tax credit. The 70 percent threshold is for 2015, after 2015 this increases to 95 percent.
• You offered coverage to at least 70 percent of your full-time employees and their dependents in 2015, but at least one full-time employee receives a premium tax credit because coverage offered was not affordable, did not provide minimum value or the full-time employee was not offered coverage. After 2015, this threshold increases to 95 percent.