Size matters in Texas: 7 strategies for deciding on health benefits for your company

Jolie Havens, a partner in the Vorys health care group who practices in the Columbus and Houston offices, authored a column for the Houston Business Journal titled “Size matters in Texas: 7 strategies for deciding on health benefits for your company.”   The article outlines possible strategies that large Texas employers can consider to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer cost-sharing mandate.

The article states:

“Understanding ‘size’ is critical to understanding the ACA’s employer cost-sharing mandate, which now starts in 2015. This mandate requires employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to provide affordable, adequate medical coverage to substantially all full-time employees and their children. So-called ‘large’ employers failing to comply face one of two nondeductible tax penalties that range from merely painful to downright catastrophic.

With ACA penalties looming and steady annual increases in health benefits costs, many Texas employers are wondering whether they are simply powerless when it comes to the issue of employee health coverage in 2015 and beyond. They are not.

In fact, employers have multiple strategies to reduce health benefits costs, comply with the ACA, and juggle other factors such as office culture, morale and talent retention.”

To read the entire article, visit the Houston Business Journal website. (Subscription may be required).