Small Businesses

Health Connector for Business is employer-sponsored health benefits offered through the Health Connector helps small business owners provide medical and/or dental insurance to their employees. Some smaller employers qualify for a wellness rebate of 15% and/or tax credits if they enroll in insurance exclusively through the Health Connector. A small business can offer health and/or dental insurance to their employees if they: Have between 1 and 50 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. Note: The business must have at least one full-time equivalent employee other than owners, partners, or their family members. Offer coverage to all full-time employees Enroll at least 70% of the employees offered insurance (with some exceptions) An employer chooses health coverage with a "One Plan" option, or a reference plan for an Employee Choice option, and sets a employer contribution amounts. If Employee Choice is selected, employees will need to select their plans. Small business owners can sign up for coverage through Health Connector for Business on their own or with the assistance of an insurance broker at any time of year.  

ACA implementation in Massachusetts will result in the easing of some current regulatory requirements for our employers Small employers will no longer be subject to an assessment and filing requirements focused on whether or not they offer coverage to their employees (there is no federal “employer responsibility” assessment for employers with 50 or fewer employees, and the Commonwealth’s Fair Share assessment has been eliminated) Employers will be required to submit an Employer Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure (HIRD) form only once a year (some currently submit quarterly). In addition the state has relieved businesses from responsibility for collecting Employee HIRD forms from their workers All employers will see a reduction in their current Unemployment Health Insurance contribution The ACA allows coverage with higher deductibles and out-of-pocket limits than are currently permissible for satisfying Massachusetts’ individual mandate (the Health Connector has conformed its Minimum Creditable Coverage rules to the federal approach).

The federal law creates new employer penalties that started in 2015 and apply to employers with more than 50 workers only. This policy is referred to as the Shared Responsibility for Employers component of the ACA. There may be a penalty for some employers that do not offer affordable health insurance coverage to full-time employees. It can be up to be $2,000 per each full‐time worker. The penalty will be triggered should any full-time employee get subsidized insurance from a health insurance Marketplace, like the Health Connector. This happens when a full-time worker, whose household income is under 400 percent of the federal poverty level, is either not offered health insurance, or is offered self-only health insurance that is unaffordable because it would cost more than 9.5 percent of the household’s income, or is offered health insurance that does not meet a minimum value standard. This means that the plan is designed to pay less than 60 percent of the total health care costs of the benefits it covers Potential penalties are calculated differently depending on whether the employer offers their full-time workers no coverage, or unaffordable or substandard coverage. Employers that do not offer any coverage can be subject to a penalty of $2,000 per full-time worker. Employers that offer substandard or unaffordable coverage may be subject to a penalty that will be the lower of the following two options: $3,000 for any employee who receives a subsidy through an insurance Marketplace, like the Health Connector OR $2,000 multiplied by all [...]