The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (H.R. 1314), signed into law on November 2, 2015, repeals the automatic enrollment rule added by Section 1511 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The auto-enrollment rule amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to require employers, if they employed more than 200 full-time employees and offered a health benefit plan, to automatically enroll new full-time employees in the health plan. Section 1511 also required that employees be given prior notice of the automatic enrollment and an opportunity to opt out of coverage.

The U.S. Department of Labor would have implemented the Section 1511 rule as part of the FLSA. In ACA FAQs Part V, released in December 2010, the Department of Labor stayed enforcement of the Section 1511 rule until regulations could be released. Those regulations, expected by 2014, were never released and thus the Section 1511 rule was never implemented. Following the repeal of Section 1511, employers will not be required to automatically enroll new employees in a health benefit plan.

As the federal health care reform effort gained steam, Ballard Spahr attorneys established the Health Care Reform Initiative to monitor and analyze legislative developments. With federal health care reform now reality, our attorneys are assisting health care entities and employers in understanding the relevant changes and planning for the future. They also have launched the Health Care Reform Dashboard, an online resource center for news and analysis on developments under the Affordable Care Act.

If you have questions about the repeal of ACA Section 1511, contact Edward I. Leeds at 215.864.8419 or leeds@ballardspahr.com, Brian M. Pinheiro at 215.864.8511 or pinheiro@ballardspahr.com, Diane A. Thompson at 424.204.4334 or thompsonda@ballardspahr.com, or Christopher W. Welsch at 215.864.8222 or welschc@ballardspahr.com.