Lost in the shuffle: 2 lesser-known ACA changes HR needs to know

by Jared Bilski

In just the past year, we’ve seen wholesale Obamacare changes, like the delay of the employer mandate and the Cadillac Tax, as well as the death of the automatic enrollment provision. But there have also been a number of minor tweaks that weren’t as highly publicized.

Just because these ACA changes aren’t receiving the fanfare of the major reg overhauls, it doesn’t mean HR pros don’t need to know about them.

Inflation adjustments

Here are two minor health reform changes:
Inflation adjustments for the affordability safe harbor percentages. Under the ACA, the threshold for determining whether a health plan is “affordable” to an employees is “9.5% of household income.” In other words, the cost of coverage cannot exceed this amount. But the law provides for inflation adjustments of this percentage.

So for plan years beginning in 2016, the 9.5% of household income threshold has been adjusted for inflation and become 9.66%.

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