Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Gould & Birney, LLP in Sacramento, California. Her practice includes employment litigation and general business litigation. 400 Capitol Mall, Twenty-Second Floor Sacramento, California 95814 916.228.7755 Phone 916.442.6664 Fax bwatts@wilkefleury.com www.wilkefleury.com understand some of the more technical aspects of the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") and its effect on employer budgets. Specifically, employers are looking for guidance on the complicated issue of how to determine whether workers qualify as full-time employees ("FTEs") for purposes of the ACA's employer shared responsibility provision and how to comply with the limitation on waiting periods before insurance coverage begins. Fortunately, the IRS has issued guidance that sheds light on the application of the employer shared responsibility rules and the 90-day waiting period limitation. Responsibility Provision individual mandate, which requires individuals to obtain health insurance either through their employer or through a covered Health Insurance many employers remain confused about the employer mandate and basic requirements of the "shared responsibility" provision. The ACA's employer shared responsibility provision applies to employers with 50 or more full-time employees or FTEs (employees working 30 or more hours per week). It requires such employers to provide FTEs "minimum essential coverage" or pay a penalty based on the number of FTEs that are not offered coverage. "Minimum essential coverage" means group health coverage under an eligible employer-sponsored group health plan, defined as a plan offered to employees of an employer that is a governmental plan or a plan or coverage available in the individual or group market. Beginning in 2014, each covered employer will be assessed a penalty if any FTE is certified as eligible to receive a premium tax credit when buying insurance in a state-based annual penalty is $2,000 per FTE in excess of 30 workers. harbor" methods that employers may use to determine which employees are treated as FTEs for purposes of the employer shared responsibility provision. For ongoing employees, employers are generally permitted to apply a "look back" method that uses "standard measurement periods" and the "stability periods" that follow them. The "standard measurement period" is the period of time an employer chooses to apply to determine whether ongoing employees are FTEs. An "ongoing employee" is one that has been employed for at least one standard measurement period. The period must be at least three but not more than 12 consecutive months. The "stability period," the period for which the employee's status as an FTE or non-FTE is locked in regardless of hours worked, must run at least six calendar months and at least as long as the standard measurement period. An employee who does not average at least 30 hours per week during the standard measurement |