Every employer must give written notice to each employee, on or before October 1, 2013, about the federal health insurance Marketplace.  Many small businesses are unaware of this and assume either that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) doesn’t apply to them or that Obamacare provisions don’t kick in until 2015.  This part of the ACA applies to every business (so long as it has 1 employee and annual revenue of $500,000 or more), and it applies right now.
 
The requirement is simply this: the employer must print out and either hand or mail to each employee a notice about the “Health Insurance Marketplace.” You can draft your own notice, or you can just print out one of the free forms available on the Department of Labor’s website: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/healthreform/index.html (under “Model Notice” – one for employers who don’t offer health insurance, and another for those who do).
 
The purpose of the notice is to inform employees about the new health insurance options and subsidies that will be available beginning January 1, 2014, and to provide information about your current health insurance options.
 
The requirement to give each employee this notice is true regardless of their full-time or part-time status or whether they’re enrolled in your health care plan (if you have one). You must do the same for all new hires starting October 1, 2013.
 
Just last week, on September 11th, the Department of Labor announced that there will be no fine or penalty under the law for failing to provide this notice. While the notice is still required by law, the lack of a penalty for failing to give it means that some employers will view it as optional. We are advising our clients to go ahead and give the notice so that there is no question that your business is in full compliance with state and federal law.