Required Notices
Employers are required by the government to provide their employees with certain notifications about their health plans. Two such required notices are detailed below.
- Annual notice to Medicare-eligible employees regarding creditable coverage
- New hire notice of health insurance marketplace coverage options
- Informing the employee of the existence of the Marketplace, including a description of the services provided by the Marketplace, and the manner in which the employee may contact the Marketplace to request assistance;
- If the employer plan’s portion of the total cost of benefits provided under the plan is less than 60 percent of such costs, that the employee may be eligible for a premium tax credit and a cost sharing reduction if the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the Marketplace; and
- If the employee purchases a qualified health plan through the Marketplace, the employee may lose the employer contribution (if any) to any health benefits plan offered by the employer and that all or a portion of such contribution may be excludable from income for Federal income tax purposes.
The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) requires that plan sponsors disclose to all Medicare-eligible individuals the creditable or non-creditable coverage status of their current prescription drug benefits prior to Oct 15 of each year and at other times as outlined under §423.56 of the final MMA regulation.
A link to the creditable coverage notice is provided below. The notice is also available on the MESSA Business Administration Center in FORMS. The disclosure notice has not changed, you can use the same notice you sent last year. For your convenience, we have highlighted the areas that you need to either update or delete in red.
Overview of providing the annual notice
Creditable coverage notice in a fillable Word document
FAQs
Section 18B of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires employers to provide each employee, at the time of hire, a written notice: