Federal law imposes numerous requirements on the group health coverage that employers provide to their employees. Many federal compliance laws apply to all group health plans, regardless of the size of the sponsoring employer. However, there are some compliance exceptions for group health coverage provided by small employers.
Small employers, for example, are not required to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer shared responsibility rules for applicable large employers (ALEs) or the Family and Medical Leave Act’s (FMLA) requirements.
Federal laws regarding group health plans do not have a consistent definition for “small employer.” However, for purposes of this article, a small employer is one with fewer than 50 employees (unless indicated otherwise). View this SSG Compliance Advisor which provides a checklist for employee benefit laws applicable to small employers, and also indicates when a requirement does not apply to a small employer’s health coverage.
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