Employers, if you have 50 or more full time employees, read on. If not, this requirement does not apply to you.

Starting with  the 2015 tax year, employers with 50+ full time staff will need to complete the following new IRS forms:

Form 1095-C:

• Must be sent to each employee by January 31^st, 2016, like the W-2
• States whether the employee was offered a healthcare plan, what months the plan was offered, and the amount of the employee’s share of the lowest-cost self-only coverage that was offered

Form 1094-C:

• Must be submitted to the IRS with all 1095-C forms by February 28, 2016 if you are filing paper forms, and by March 31, 2016 if you are filing electronically
• Acts as a cover page for the 1095-C forms, stating how many 1095-C forms you are submitting

Why?

These forms will be used to enforce the provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requiring that employers with over 50 full time employees provide healthcare coverage that is…

• Affordable. The lowest cost self-only health plan must be no more than 9.5 percent of the employee’s gross income.

• Of Minimum Value. At least 60 percent of the employer group’s medical costs, as a whole, must be covered by the health plan. (All HNE plans comply with this requirement, and the majority pay for at least 70 percent of the group’s medical costs.)
• Offered to at least 70 percent of full time employees in 2015. In 2016, the minimum will increase to 95 percent.
• If you don’t meet these requirements, you may be penalized!

How will I meet this requirement? Will Health New England help?

Health New England cannot supply the information for these forms. They must be given to every employee who was offered health insurance, including employees who declined it and are not in HNE’s records. We will continue to supply all of our fully-insured subscribers with form 1095-B, which notes the months that your employees and their dependents received healthcare coverage from HNE.

Your payroll company  can track the data for forms 1094-C and 1095-C, and prepare the forms. We suggest that you speak with your payroll company about this new requirement, to ensure that you have smoothly-working systems in place to meet it.

You can find further instructions from the IRS at this link: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i109495c/