Federal and NC Definitions Now Aligned

Date: 08/23/2013

Recently, the North Carolina (NC) legislature passed House Bill 649, which made changes to NC’s Small Employer Group Health Coverage Reform Act in order to align federal and NC definitions related to small employer group health plans – specifically, those definitions included as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Important changes affecting BCBSNC employer groups beginning January 1, 2014 include:

Sole Proprietorship Change

Self-employed individuals (or sole proprietors) with no common-law employees are no longer eligible for non-grandfathered small employer health plan coverage; conversely, a sole proprietor is eligible for group coverage if there is at least one common law employee (e.g., non-family member, etc.) employed.

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