​Employers that plan to or have already introduced incentives or penalties to coax their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, have to prepare for likely paperwork and compliance challenges.

The Biden administration has made it easier to require employees to get vaccinated after it ordered Fed-OSHA to write regulations mandating that all employers with 100 or more employees require their workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.

​The IRS has announced the new affordability requirement test percentage that group health plans must comply with to conform to the Affordable Care Act.

Under the ACA, employers with 50 or more full-time workers are required to provide health insurance that covers 10 essential benefits and that must be considered "affordable," meaning that the employee's share of premiums may not exceed a certain level. Make sure your plans are in compliance. Here is the new level for 2022.

Employers are entering the second year of open enrollment taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still having an outsized impact on the process and which has changed the face of health insurance.
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There are a number of issues that will have an effect on health plans, as well as regulations and laws affecting coverage that were born out of the pandemic. While employers will have to contend with the usual open enrollment challenges, this year presents new issues that employers will have to keep an eye on to ensure their plans are compliant.