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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and H&R Block Calculate Financial Impact of Health Care Law on Businesses

The nation's 1,990-page Healthcare Reform legislation is bound to cause confusion among business owners. Two leading local companies, H&R Block /quotes/comstock/13*!hrb/quotes/nls/hrb  (HRB  13.36, -0.30, -2.20%)  and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, have joined forces to provide a convenient, comprehensive tool to help small business owners understand the financial impact of health care reform.

"This tool, in combination with our BlueChoice defined contribution product, provides a strong incentive for small businesses to continue to provide insurance. A small employer's tax credit can be combined with our BlueChoice plan to help employers control what they spend on employee health insurance for even greater savings. We began promoting the small business tax credit in April, right after the reform bill passed. Our advertising campaign around the small business tax credit and calculat Healthcare Reform or contributed to an additional 5,000 new members covered in 227 new employer groups -- of which 28 percent were previously uninsured," said Tom Bowser, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and chairman of the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association board of directors.

"Taxes are no longer something we just think about in April," said Amy McAnarney, H&R Block's president for the Central United States. "Taxes are at the intersection of people's daily lives with paychecks, investments, buying a home and now, health care. This tool helps small businesses budget and forecast for the resulting tax implications."

To use the tax calculator, small business owners answer questions about their employees and insurance coverage, including the number of employees, payroll and wages, and the insurance premiums the company expects to pay. The calculator then generates an overview of the company's health care costs and whether, beginning in 2014, the company will be required to offer health insurance to employees. In addition, the calculator provides information regarding employer penalties for not providing coverage, along with details on the excise tax that could be assessed on high-cost health plans beginning in 2018.

"The tax credit website and tax calculator, developed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and H&R Block, provide a simple, convenient way for small businesses to determine if they are eligible to receive a tax credit to help offset health insurance costs," said Mike Bukaty, president of Bukaty Companies, a Leawood, Kan., employee benefits and insurance consulting firm. "We have introduced these resources to our small business clients, and the response has been very favorable."

BlueChoice is a defined contribution product that allows small business owners to choose how much they want to contribute to employees' health insurance premium costs and employees get to put that money toward the health plan offered that best meets their needs. BlueChoice lets employees choose between five to six different plans for themselves and their families.

Source: H & R Block