Obamacare Penalty!Another Blow For

Small Business Owners

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Obamacare penalty may include

business owners facing $100 per day. There may be an

expensive wake-up call this coming month for small business owners. They

thought they were home free until 2015, but may

have a shock.

If a business has at least one employee and

generating $500,000 in revenue a year, must

notify all employees by letter about the

Affordable Care Act's health care exchanges. If

they do not, will face a $100 per day fine.

This applies to any business that is regulated

under the Fair Labor Standards Act and

doesn't matter the size. Plus any new employee must receive the letter within 14 days of their start date according to

the Department of Labor.

A few months ago the employer mandate was

informed that every business with at least 50 or more full-time employees must offer

workers acceptable coverage or face a $2,000 penalty per

worker. per year. Keith McMurdy, partner at FOX

Rothschild LLP, says the $100 per-day fine has been

“unfortunately overlooked” by many small businesses,

and the dollar amount on the penalty comes from the

general per-day penalty under the ACA; however the October

1 employee notification deadline stands.www.TheFutureOfHealthInsurance

“The PPACA has a general $100-a-day penalty for non-

compliance. Since this requirement is in the FLSA

there are also penalties there. So the general

consensus is that some penalty applies and

probably the general provision,” McMurdy tells

FOXBusiness.com.

Joeseph Dutra, president and CEO of Kimmie Candy Co., has 30 employees and

brings in more than $500,000 in revenue

annually, which means he has to notify workers of the exchanges by Oct. 1. He had

no idea.

“My understanding is that a lot of businesses don’t know what the requirements are under the law,” Dutra says. “So many businesses don’t

have a designated HR department.”

Joe’s “HR department” is his son, John Dutra. John says the business was aware of the Oct.

1 deadline for notifying workers about the exchanges,

but did not know about the $100 penalty. He says while the company will continue to offer benefits to its employees as it

currently does, the costs it will pay for coverage overall will

increase by 4%, thanks to ACA regulations.

Ray Keating, chief economist for the Small

Business & Entrepreneurship Council, says many businesses are

likely unaware of this potential fine coming down

the pike for failure to comply, and that it’s unclear how the government will be implementing the $100-per-

day penalty.

“It’s a steep fine—when you start tallying up all of the costs, businesses need to start figuring out ‘am I

better off just not offering coverage and paying the penalty?’” he says. “And there is no easy answer.

With this, you are dealing with the threat of a $100-a-

day penalty fine,

but you also have to go through the process of

notifying everyone, so on and so forth, so there are no easy ways out for business

owners.”Keating says it’s simply another example of how the

law will cost both businesses -- and

government -- more cash.

The White House declined to comment on how the fine would be implemented, but deferred to the U.S. Small Business Administration, which says education on

this FLSA requirement has been part of “any and all outreach that SBA does

with small business owners.”

The agency says it has participated in more than 750 ACA-related events with more than 30,000 small business owners

and community stakeholders since

February 2013.

We cannot predict the outcome of any future legislation or litigation related to Healthcare Reform. As described

under “Item 1. Business—Health Insurance

Industry and Market Opportunity,”

We expect Healthcare Reform to result in

profound changes to the individual health insurance market and

our business.www.AIADirectQuote.c

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www.TheFutureOfHealthInsurance.com

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