PRINCETON – Included in the provisions of the recently upheld Affordable Care Act is the responsibility of large employers to not only offer affordable healthcare insurance but also meet minimum essential coverage requirements or be subject to a penalty. Large employers with 50 employees have until 2014 to meet the criteria outlined in the Act.

To help employers forecast these potential penalties and make proactive changes to their benefits lineup prior to 2014, the New Jersey Hospital Association has launched the Reform Insurance Penalty Estimator. RIPE is an easy-to-use decision support tool that helps employers assess the risk for penalties. This flexible tool displays results of estimated penalties and enables the user to create different scenarios and even adjusts for inflation.

“Most large employers are likely to want to continue offering healthcare coverage to their employees, but may unwittingly face penalties if they don’t conform to the specifics of the healthcare reform law. RIPE is a streamlined and affordable tool to help those employers model their benefit plans to make sure they aren’t blindsided by penalties,” says William Kennedy, senior vice president of NJHA’s Healthcare Business Solutions.

RIPE retails at $249 and can be accessed by visiting www.njha.com/RIPE