PPACA-related health insurance marketplace changes may affect chiropractic

September 25, 2013 — Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) must provide notification to their employees about other aspects of the new health insurance marketplace. This generally includes practices that have at least one employee and conduct a minimum of $500,000 in annual business.

Eligible employers — this may include chiropractic practices — are required to provide this notice to all current employees by Oct. 1, and to each new employee at the time of hire beginning Oct. 1.

Your office may fall under the FLSA even if the gross sales or volume of business does not meet the requisite dollar volume of $500,000 annually. Employees may still be covered if they individually engage in interstate commerce, the production of goods for interstate commerce or in an occupation closely related and directly essential to such production. Interstate commerce includes such activities as transacting business via interstate telephone calls or the U.S. Mail (such as handling insurance claims), ordering or receiving goods from an out-of-state supplier, or handling the accounting or bookkeeping for such activities. It would also include the handling of credit card transactions since that involves the interstate banking and finance systems.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has provided employers with two sample notices they may use to comply with this rule, one for employers who do NOT offer a health plan and another for employers who DO offer a health plan for some or all employees.

Source: American Chiropractic Association