April 16, 2010

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) creates a grant program to assist small businesses with providing comprehensive workplace wellness programs.

Grants will be awarded to eligible employers to provide their employees with access to new workplace wellness initiatives. The grants will be awarded beginning in 2011 with $200 million appropriated for a five-year period. An eligible employer is an employer that:

• Employs fewer than 100 employees who work 25 hours or more per week, and
• Did not have a workplace wellness program as of March 23, 2010 (the date of PPACA's enactment).

Don't delay — it's important to prepare now for the big changes the healthcare legislation is bringing to your workplace. Join Business & Legal Resources, ERI's parent company, for an in-depth 90-minute webinar this coming Wednesday, April 21. Can't make it on Wednesday? Order the CD and listen at your leisure.

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The PPACA requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop program criteria that are based on research and best practices. A comprehensive workplace wellness program must be made available to all employees and include:

• Health awareness initiatives (including health education, preventive screenings, and health risk assessments)
• Efforts to maximize employee engagement (including mechanisms to encourage employee participation)
• Initiatives to change unhealthy behaviors and lifestyle choices (including counseling, seminars, online programs, and self-help materials)
• Supportive environment efforts (including workplace policies to encourage healthy lifestyles, healthy eating, increased physical activity, and improved mental health)
• Employers may submit applications that include a proposal for a program that meets the criteria and requirements as described in the PPACA and developed by the Secretary.

Healthcare Reform: What the New Legislation Means for Employers

After months of wrangling in Washington, President Obama has just signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — arguably the most far-reaching piece of social legislation passed in the last several decades.

Now, employers around the country are scrambling to figure out what the upcoming changes mean for them — and their employees.

It's a huge challenge, because federal regulators haven't yet written the rules implementing the new law. What is clear is that you're in for some big changes to your healthcare benefits, from an extension of dependent coverage and a ban on annual and lifetime coverage caps, to limits on flexible spending account distributions — as well as penalties if you fail to provide the right coverage to your workers.

And you don't have a lot of time to get ready — while some of these changes don't go into effect until 2014, others will become effective as early as this fall.

Get prepared now by joining BLR, ERI's parent company, this coming Wednesday, April 21, for an exclusive webinar specifically designed around what employers need to know. You'll learn:

• What the changes mean, when they're taking effect, and what you should do right now to prepare your organization (and your employees) for what lies ahead
• Whether you'll now be legally required to offer health insurance to your employees (or penalized if the coverage you're offering isn't considered good enough)
• How to qualify for the tax credits and premium reimbursements available in certain situations
• Whether your healthcare plans will be classified as "Cadillac" plans, subject to new excise taxes as "excess benefits"
• What's changing with the contribution limits and distribution allowances for healthcare flexible spending accounts (such as HSAs, HRAs, and FSAs)
• How new coverage restrictions, such as annual and lifetime benefits caps and prohibitions against denying coverage for preexisting conditions, will affect your group health plans
• Best practices for working with your healthcare brokers and vendors to prepare for these changes
• How to prep your employee communications plans ahead of time, so that you can roll out information quickly as the new regulations take effect

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