Healthcare Reform: Top 7 Things Businesses Need to Know Now

The court battle over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is over. The US Supreme Court says the law is valid. Whether you agree or not, it is now time for businesses to start getting ready for what this means.

There are thousands of ins and outs to this law – far more than this article can address. But for now, there are 7 areas to start focusing on.

• The Employer "Play or Pay" Mandate
• New Nondiscrimination Requirements
• Automatic Enrollment
• Disposition of Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) Rebates
• New Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) Requirement
• Reporting the Cost of Coverage on 2012 W-2 Forms
• New Limitations on Medical Flexible Spending Accounts

The cost of maintaining a health plan will likely go up. You will have to examine the portion of employee cost that you are paying currently in light of employees' pay to determine whether you will be in compliance with the play or pay mandate and anticipate the additional cost of the automatic enrollment requirement. The cost of compliance with ACA will be reflected in increased administration fees and premiums, as well. Also, you should consider that your employees will have many questions about how all of this impacts them, so you need to be prepared to address those questions.

This article appeared on July 10, 2012 on Midlandsbiz.