SKR+Co Follow-up: Clarification on who needs to send notice of health care options to employees
We recently sent an alert to you regarding the October 1st deadline for providing notification to employees of their healthcare options. We received questions from some of you asking whether this requirement applied to your business, so we will clarify this to the best of our ability.
Is your business required to send the notice?
The notice requirement must be met by employers that are required to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In general, the FLSA applies to *employers with one or more employees who are engaged in, or produce goods for, interstate commerce. By this definition a case could be made that just about any business meets this requirement, regardless of sales volume.
For that reason, it is our recommendation that all employers should provide the notice to their employees by Tuesday, October 1st. Please also note that after October 1, notice must be given to new employees within two weeks of their hire dates.
For detailed information on this requirement, Click Here.
Is there a standard notice I can use?
Yes. In fact there are Colorado versions and Department of Labor has also issued a pair of model notices you can use (or you could create your own as long as it contains required content).
One notice is for for employers that offer health benefits and one is for employers that do not – so be sure and select the right one. Please see the side bar to the right for links to these forms and more information on the notices.
How should employers send the notice?
It can be sent by first-class mail and can also be provided via e-mail, but only if employees access e-mail as an “integral part” of their duties and can access the messages easily.The notice must “be provided in writing in a manner calculated to be understood by the average employee,” according to the Department of Labor.
*The FLSA also specifically covers the following: hospitals; institutions primarily engaged in the care of the sick, aged, mentally ill, or disabled who reside on the premises; schools for children who are mentally or physically disabled or gifted; preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education; and federal, state and local government agencies.
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