On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the first part of Congress’ historic health care reform legislation. One week later, on March 30, 2010, the President signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA), which amended several pieces of the one-week old PPACA. By now, most employers have seen dozens of outlines and summaries of the new law. Rather than provide just another summary, we prefer to follow the more practical approach we’ve used with other major legal developments: sharing the answers to employers’ most common questions about their obligations under the new law (PPACA and HCERA are collectively referred to as PPACA).

This health care reform Q&A for employers provides our thoughts on a variety of questions raised by employers and their service providers about how PPACA will impact employer-sponsored health plans, based on the statutory language, legislative history and informal guidance available to date. We plan to update this list of questions and answers regularly on our Web site, as we receive more questions from our clients and guidance from government agencies, so please check back often.

The Q&A page can be accessed at www.bakerdaniels.com/employer-hcr-qa.