The Downtowner

Catamount health plan affects all employers starting april 1, 2007

Are you ready?

Whether you are a business or non-profit organization, with one or hundreds of employees, full time or part time, you are affected by Vermont’s new Catamount Health Plan.  Here is a concise summary of the plan, provided by Jeanne Keller of Keller & Fuller, and Tom McKeown of Business Resource Services, Inc.

 

Quick Facts about Catamount Health

What is Catamount Health?

Catamount Health is the subsidized non-group insurance coverage proposed to be provided to uninsured Vermonters starting October 1, 2007. With a few exceptions for those who lose their coverage involuntarily, persons must be without health insurance for at least 12 months to be eligible for Catamount Health.

What is the Employer Assessment?

Many employers equate the Employer Assessment with Catamount Health, when the two are not linked. The assessment is a funding mechanism, mostly for Catamount Health but also for other health reforms, such as information technology investments. The assessment is not a “premium” and doesn’t make employees eligible for the Catamount plan. It is not based on whether an employee enrolls in Catamount Health. It is not even based on whether the employee has insurance from any source. It is only connected to the Catamount insurance plan in that the assessment will annually increase at the same rate as the Catamount insurance premiums.

Which employers are covered by the assessment?

ALL employers who withhold Vermont taxes and file unemployment insurance reports must file and maintain documentation relating to the assessment.

Which employers will have to pay the assessment?

Any employer with any employees in any of these categories will have to pay an assessment:

* Employers who offer no insurance coverage.

* Employers who offer insurance only to some employees, but not all employees.

* Employers who offer insurance but not all employees take the insurance, and if any of those employees remain uninsured.

When does this start?

The assessment goes into effect on April 1, 2007 and the first quarterly payments will be due July 15, 2007. This means employers must plan now for the record keeping that will be necessary to accurately report the hours worked by employees in any of the three categories above.

How is the assessment calculated?

The total hours worked by any employees in any of the three categories above are added up. This total is divided by 520 (which is the total number of hours that the full time employee would work in a quarter). That produces the number of “Full Time Equivalents” (FTEs) the employer has in the three categories. Because the first eight FTEs are exempt (to lessen the impact on very small businesses), subtract 8 from the FTE number, and then take that answer times $91.75 for the quarterly assessment.  A simple, interactive assessment calculator is at www.brsvt.com to help employers estimate their assessment liability.

What about part time and seasonal workers?

The original legislation called for a study on this issue. The study committee recommended exempting (not counting the hours of) any employee working fewer than 20 weeks per year in a job that was intended to last fewer than 20 weeks per year, as long as the employee

(Continued on page 4)