California Scheduled to Expand Small Group Definition Despite PACE Act

On October 7, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE) Act which repeals provisions of the Affordable Care Act, and the Public Health Service Act, that effective January 1, 2016 would otherwise mandate expansion of the definition of “small employer” subject to insurance market reforms, from employers with 1 to 50 employees, to those with up to 100 employees. (This is actually a “look-back” test based on employee headcounts over the prior calendar year).  As discussed in this prior post, the market reform provisions, including modified community rating to determine premiums, and prohibitions on dollar limits on essential health benefits, are expected to significantly increase the cost of coverage for employers with 51 to 100 employees who will be joining the small group market for the first time.

Although the PACE Act repeals the federally-mandated expansion of the “small employer” definition, it leaves states the discretion to expand the definition on their own schedule.  As previously reported, California already enacted legislation in 2012, A.B. 1083, that expands the definition of small employer to employers with 1 to 100 employees, effective for plan or policy years beginning on or after January 1, 2016.  And in S.B. 125, earlier this year, California also adopted the use of the ACA’s full-time and full-time equivalent method of counting employees towards the small employer threshold.  When enacting S.B. 125, California had the opportunity to postpone small group expansion but did not do so.  Therefore the California small group market expansion will occur in 2016 unless California legislators take quick action by the end of the year to repeal the expansion, now codified in the California Insurance and Health and Safety Codes, or extend its effective date.  Of course, if is possible that the California legislature will not make any changes to the small employer definition, and small group expansion will occur in 2016.

We will continue to monitor developments on this topic.

Please note that an additional provision of S.B. 125 – changing open enrollment under the California state health exchange – Covered California, to match the November 1 – January 31 open enrollment period used by the federally-facilitated exchange, is scheduled to take effect November 1, 2015.