Nov. 22--Morris Black and Sons doesn't have a problem with the actual insurance part of the Affordable Care Act's employer mandate. The Hanover Township, Lehigh County, kitchen remodeler offers four health plans with more than adequate coverage.
But keeping up with all the paperwork required by Obamacare is another matter.
Office manager Deb Levy estimates she'll have to spend about 40 to 60 hours filling out the Internal Revenue Service's 1095-C form for every person employed by the company over the course of the year.
"It's tedious," she said. "It's ridiculous ... You are guessing at what codes you need to use."
The employer mandate, one of the most controversial aspects of President Barack Obama's signature 2010 law, requires employers to offer health insurance to workers who put in at least 30 hours per week or pay a fine. It applied at the beginning of the year to employers -- including businesses, nonprofits and public entities such as municipal governments and school districts -- with the equivalent of 100 or more full-time workers, and will be extended Jan. 1 to those with the equivalent of 50 to 99.
Businesses of this size represent a relatively small but critical part of the Lehigh Valley's employer makeup, accounting for 3 percent of total businesses but 12 percent of jobs, including a disproportionately high number of manufacturers, according to Bethlehem economist Kamran Afshar.
About 250 such businesses belong to the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, or about 5 percent of the organization's membership.
"They are very valuable," Afshar said. "[They] are really the engines of growth."
By the end of the ACA's 2015 open enrollment period in February, more than 11.4 million consumers nationwide had signed up for individual insurance through either the federal marketplace or state-based exchanges, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The vast majority received government subsidies to make their premiums affordable.
The employer mandate was intended to prevent workplaces from dropping their own insurance benefits in favor of the subsidized coverage. However, it drew fire from opponents, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation, who said it would create an undue burden on businesses, leading to layoffs and discouraging job creation. Under pressure, the Obama administration delayed implementation for a year.
So far, large employers have managed to comply with the law without too much trouble; they are more apt to have human resources departments to handle the extra workload. But employers with 50 to 99 workers -- such as Morris Black and Sons, which has about 85 -- face a different reality.
"I am the HR department," said Levy, who also handles payroll, among other duties.
For each 1095-C form, she has to make two copies, one for the employee and another for the IRS, she explained. The IRS is supposed to check for accuracy by comparing the information on the forms to that of matching forms submitted by the employers' insurance carriers.
"It's a waste of taxpayer money, and it's a waste of employer time and money," she said.
Under the ACA, employers that do not provide insurance are supposed to pay a fine of $2,000 per worker after the first 30 full-time workers -- full time being 30 or more hours a week. Employers may be subject to even bigger fines -- about $3,000 per worker -- if they offer substandard coverage that forces workers to buy better coverage on the marketplace.
The challenge is to correctly document compliance with the ACA, given its many details and technicalities.
"It's a huge administrative burden for these companies," said Michael Stocker, an employee benefits broker with Hampson Mower Kreitz Insurance in Bethlehem, which counts Morris Black and Sons among its clients.
It is also a burden for the brokers. Stocker said he has been spending so much time during the week interpreting and explaining the law to clients that he's had to go to the office on Saturdays and Sundays to get the rest of his work done.
Another of Hampson Mower Kreitz's clients is Cera-Met, a Bethlehem manufacturer of aluminum castings.
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