By Jerry Geisel, Business Insurance
September 11 14:34:00, 2006
BOSTON—Effective Oct. 1, employers in Massachusetts will have to comply
with newly finalized regulations that spell out whether they will be
subject to a special assessment mandated by the state’s landmark health
care reform law.
Under a provision in the law, companies with at least 11 full-time
employees in the state are subject to an annual assessment of up to $295
per year per full-time employee if they do not provide a "fair and
reasonable" health insurance premium contribution.
Revenues raised by the assessment will be directed into a fund used to
subsidize health insurance premiums for lower-income individuals and thus
expand the number of state residents with coverage.
Under the final regulations, issued by the state’s Division of Health
Care Finance and Policy and which closely follow rules the division
proposed in late June, employers that pass either of two tests would be
considered to have made a fair and reasonable contribution and thus be
exempt from the assessment.
Under the primary test, if at least 25% of an employer’s full-time
employees are enrolled in its group health insurance plans, that employer
would pass the fair and reasonable test.
If the 25% enrollment threshold is not met, employers that offer to pay
at least 33% of the premium for individual coverage would pass the fair
and reasonable test.
Benefit experts said earlier that they doubt whether any large or
midsize company would have difficulty passing either test.
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