ACA Repeal Bill Fails – What This Means For Your Business

Now that the ACA Repeal bill has been taken off the table by Republicans, businesses have a clearer picture of how they will need to move forward when it comes to reporting for the Affordable Care Act. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan has made several comments that effectively put an end to trying to repeal and replace the ACA. Instead, he said the Republican party will move forward with other agenda items including tax reform and immigration.

In short, if you were hoping for changes in reporting or coverage that your business needs to fulfill, it doesn’t look like anything will be happening any time soon.

Need to brush up on what is required in the Affordable Care Act? If you:

1. have over 50 FTEs or
2. have 50 – 99 FTEs and don’t meet the criteria for transition relief or
3. are self-insured (no matter how many employees you have)

you’ll need to submit the 1095-C Forms for the ACA.

Businesses that are at high risk for penalties include those with a large number of part-time employees, seasonal employees or employees who are paid minimum wage. Each employee whose hours of service (not hours of work) that total 130 hours in any one month qualify for affordable health care. You must provide a 1095-C form for all of these employees. Hours of service include vacation, holiday, illness, incapacity, layoff, jury duty, military duty, leave of absence, or FMLA. Employees do not need to be compensated for their time for those hours to be included in hours of service.

You can track your employees that have affordable health insurance in Microsoft Dynamics GP’s HR module. There is a simple checkbox to track information.

However, if your business is at-risk based on the factors listed above, you should be tracking your ACA reporting information in a more robust solution. We have two different preferred options that integrate directly with Microsoft Dynamics GP and will save you time and keep you from being hit by large IRS penalties.

These solutions also allow you to track if an employee rejected coverage and why. This will help when you need to account for employees not having coverage or going tothe marketplace.

If you have been skating by hoping the ACA would be repealed, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Hit the ground running in 2017 with a better software solution that will help you track health insurance requirements and avoid IRS penalties.