Brianna Tinzley, right, works with other employees during a recent lunch hour at Jimmy John's sandwich shop in downtown South Bend. Business owners, especially those in the restaurant industry, are preparing for new health care requirements that take effect in 2014. Staff photo by Greg Swiercz
Last month's election effectively ended any doubts that President Barack Obama's health care law will continue to be implemented.
It also set business owners and executives into high gear as they look at the decisions they'll have to make to meet new requirements that take full effect in 2014.
"Most of them have stopped asking the question, 'Is this for real? Do I really have to do it?' " said Mark Rust, a managing partner in Barnes & Thornburg's Chicago office and chair of the law firm's national health care practice.
"Now that they realize that they're going to be under a new regime, the question is, 'What does this mean for me?' " said Rust, who was one of the panelists at a health care summit last month in South Bend. "Virtually every business considers the cost of health care to be such a large and important expense, to a large degree the success of their business hinges on controlling that cost."
One of the law's significant mandates is that every business with the equivalent of at least 50 full-time employees will have to offer health insurance to those who work at least 30 hours per week. Businesses that don't do so will face a $2,000 fine for each full-time worker, excluding the first 30.
The rule will apply to companies beginning in 2014, but the one-year period that will be used to determine whether they have 50 full-time employees begins Jan. 1.
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