President Obama has signed the HR1624 bill (Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act or PACE) into federal law. This action repeals the mandated expansion of the Small Group market to include groups with 51-100 employees. This requirement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was originally scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2016. Repeal of the mandated transition now gives states the option to define their Small Group market up to 100 employees, if they choose.

Accordingly, the New Hampshire Department of Insurance has released a bulletin stating the recision of the federal law will result in New Hampshire reverting back to state law, where the small group definition is 1-50 employees. However, while previous size determination was based on the number of benefit eligible employees, effective 1/1/2016 the size determination will follow federal counting rules based on a calculation of full-time equivalents.

Massachusetts Division of Insurance has also rescinded the previously released allowed transitional renewals for employers with 50-100 employees.

As the insurance carriers determine how they will address these changes, NEEBCo will provide updates. NEEBCo will also keep employers informed as additional states consider proceeding with expanding their small group markets to include businesses with up to 100 employees, or retaining their small group markets for businesses of up to 50 employees.

For questions regarding employer size, small group definitions and health insurance rating, contact your NEEBCo representative.