Getting Ready for the Health Law: Deadlines Nonprofits Should Heed

Provisions of the law take effect on a rolling timetable over the coming years. The following are some key dates for employers, according to Danny Miller, a Washington lawyer who specializes in employee benefits:

By August 1, 2012

Make sure your insurance plans provide additional preventive-care services for women, like well visits and contraception (detailed on the Department of Health and Human Service’s Web site) without any cost-sharing. Churches and faith-based groups that have a religious objection to paying for contraceptive services have either an outright exemption from the rule or an extra year to comply. In addition, health plans that have met minimum qualifications for consideration as grandfathered plans are not obligated to include the preventive services at no cost-sharing, according to the Health and Human Services Department, though many of them already do.

By September 23, 2012

Start providing participants enrolling or re-enrolling in your insurance plans (during the first open-enrollment period following this enforcement date) with a uniform summary of benefits and coverage intended to help consumers understand and compare health-insurance coverage options. A template of the summary is available on the Department of Labor’s Web site.

By January 2013

Supply your employees with W-2 tax forms, which include information about the cost of their employer-provided health-insurance coverage. For now, churches with self-insured plans do not have to meet this requirement nor do employers who filed fewer than 250 W-2 forms the previous year.

By January 1, 2014

Be ready for the big changes when the state exchanges open and the employer excise-tax penalties kick in.

“Start your thinking and planning now,” says Mr. Miller. Ask yourself and your organization these questions, he says:

• How will we respond to the new world of health care?

• Will we continue to offer our employees an insurance plan? If so, how will it be structured?

• If we have 50 or more full-time employees, what can we do to ensure that we avoid the excise tax?