Following passage in the Senate, sildenafil and the President signed the Protecting Affordable Care for Employees (PACE) Act into law on October 7, 2015. The PACE Act rescinds the ACA’s expansion of small group health insurance policies from “up to 50 employees” to “up to 100 employees” that was scheduled to take effect January 1, 2016.
This means that employers in the 51-100 employee size group may not be subject to small-group market rules, including requirements to provide essential health benefits defined by the ACA with less underwriting criteria. Currently the underwriting criteria covering small group plans includes age, geography and smokers in the group and excludes claims experience and gender. The legislative intent of the PACE Act is to support small and mid-size businesses by limiting potential premium increases and give states the option to define their small group market size up to 100 employees.
