What do employers need to consider regarding healthcare benefits? Healthcare benefits are an ever-increasing portion of employee compensation costs, but offering healthcare benefits to employees is often vital to recruiting and retaining the best employees. There are several different types of healthcare benefits plans that employers use to fulfill their organizations’ healthcare benefits goals.

While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) left much of the current employer-based system intact, the reforms have affected nearly every employer in the country. While there is still no federal law that requires employers to provide employees with healthcare insurance, employers with more than 50 employees that do not offer coverage, or do not offer sufficient coverage, are subject to financial penalties. In addition, U.S. citizens and legal residents, with few exceptions, are required to have qualifying health coverage.

The drive to control the cost of healthcare benefits continues to cause employers to implement a variety of cost-cutting and cost-shifting strategies ranging from self-insurance and managed care to defined-contribution, or consumer-directed, health plans. For information on other requirements relating to healthcare benefits, Please see the national Health Care Insurance, national Health Information Privacy, national Health Insurance: Play or Pay?, and national Health Insurance Continuation/COBRA. sections.