Mercer recently surveyed employers about their responses to health reform provisions that were effective in 2011 and their attitudes toward requirements that won’t kick in until 2014 or later. The area that provided the most intriguing results involved eligibility. A year ago, when asked what actions they were likely to take in 2014 when benefits must be made available to employees working 30 or more hours per week, employers seemed more inclined to bite the bullet and provide benefits to all their employees with hours above that threshold than to reduce the number of hours that employees worked to avoid hitting the threshold.
What a difference a year makes.
