The United States has entered a new era of health care reform. Until now, United States employers were generally not required to provide health care coverage to employees (although many did so for employee relations and competitive reasons). But as of Jan. 1, 2015, under the Affordable Care Act’s ‘‘employer shared responsibility’’ mandate, employers of a certain size must either offer coverage to full-time employees, or risk paying a penalty. Employers and their advisers must also wade through a murky swamp of analytical, record-keeping, reporting and disclosure requirements in order to secure compliance and either avoid or minimize penalties.

The basics of the employer shared responsibility rule are generally familiar at this point. Employers who averaged 50 or more full-time (FT) and full-time equivalent (FTE) employees on business days during a preceding calendar year are called ‘‘applicable large employers’’ (ALEs) and are subject to the ACA for a calendar year. ‘‘Full time’’ employees are those who work at least 30 hours of service per week. Monthly FTE employees are determined by adding up all hours of service for employees who are not "full time" (capped at 120 per employee) and dividing by 120.

Originally published in Pension & Benefits Daily on January 9, 2015.