Website offers Rx for healthcare law confusion

From SAF news briefs:

Ready or not, health care reform is here to stay. Business owners have nine months to implement this complex new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2014 — but SAF has a tool to help floral business owners.

SAF's new Health Care Resource Center spells out the law’s key provisions in easy-to-understand language, and its step-by-step Planning Tool points a business owner toward specific requirements depending on how ACA rules define a company’s size.

Determining whether you are a “large” or “small” employer — as ACA defines it — is the starting point from which to identify your business’ specific obligations under the new law. “Being a large or small employer for the purposes of the ACA is not subjective. You need to do the math to fully understand what your requirements will be under the law in order to make informed decisions,” said SAF’s Corey Connors, senior director of government relations. A Business Size Calculator is included in the Resource Center’s Planning Tool.

The site explains specific requirements — and penalties for non-compliance — for companies defined under ACA rules as small or large employers, the self-employed, and guidelines for employees as they consider their health care choices. A glossary of terms and an implementation timeline are also part of the resource center.

“We’ve tried to be as comprehensive as possible,” Connors said. "Our Health Care Resource Center demystifies the ACA and breaks it into plain English and facts. If members don’t find information they need, there’s a form to submit questions."

Visit the Health Care Resource Center at safnow.org/health-care-resource-center; for more information please contact Corey Connors at cconnors@safnow.org or 800-336-4743.