contractor success Healthcare Reform The new legislation may increase business costs, and it will create administrative burdens as well. By: Ruth Cyrus Adds Up The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as Healthcare Reform, was created to ensure that health-care is available to all Americans, but the execution of the Act is creating challenges for businesses in many industries — and the cleaning and maintenance industry is no exception. Many building service contractors (BSCs) do not currently provide healthcare benefits to all full-time employees because it is not mandatory, and a substantial portion of their staff includes part-time employees. Now the PPACA raises concerns about managing both the administrative burden and the cost of providing health insurance. Everyone Counts: Does The Employer Mandate Apply? The PPACA changes traditional definitions of full-time and part-time in terms of em-ployee classification, which will affect em-ployee counts in relation to the Act. Why is this important? The PPACA mandates that businesses with more than 50 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees provide affordable healthcare benefits for full-time employees on Janu-ary 1, 2015, or potentially pay a fine of up to $2,000 per full-time employee.* This date was originally January 1, 2014, but was recently changed to this later date. The administrative burden begins with the ongoing task of classifying workers as full-time or part-time. The PPACA defines a full-time employee as someone who works 30 hours or more per service week or 130 hours per calendar month. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was created to ensure that healthcare is available to all Americans, but the execution of the Act is creating challenges for businesses in many industries, including the cleaning and maintenance industry. 32 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • September 2013 Image Courtesy of franckreporter/iStockphoto/Thinkstock T
CMM – Archives September 2013: 32
