ATLANTA — That's a question more than a quarter of HME providers participating in HomeCare's 2010 Salary & Benefits Survey couldn't answer.
Other small business owners across the country are apparently in the dark as well when it comes to all of the factors that determine whether the business could receive a tax subsidy, and if so, how much that might be.
In response, researchers at Georgia State University have developed a small business tax credit calculator to help employers crunch the numbers.
The "50-State Health Reform Calculator for Small Businesses" will help determine whether small employers qualify for credits under the new health reform law, and gives a rough idea of the amount they could receive if they offer health benefits to employees as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
Small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees making less than $50,000 may be eligible for tax credits to help cover the cost of insurance starting this year.
The calculator was developed by Georgia State's Institute of Health Administration in collaboration with the Georgia Health Policy Center in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the Florida Public Health Institute and the Center for Mississippi Health Policy.
The new calculator, which works for all states, can be accessed at www.gsu.edu/ghpc.
(Tax credits are not the only thing about the new health reform law that has HME providers flummoxed. Almost two-thirds — 63 percent — of those who took the HomeCare survey said they either don't understand at all or only "sort of" get how health reform will affect their companies' benefits program. Find out more about providers' current staffing, salary and benefits plans in HomeCare's next issue.)