§ 2003 - Health care fund contribution assessment
§ 2003. Health care fund contribution assessment
(a) The commissioner of labor shall assess and an employer shall pay a quarterly health care fund contribution for each full-time equivalent uncovered employee employed during that quarter in excess of:
(1) eight full-time equivalent employees in fiscal years 2007 and 2008;
(2) six full-time equivalent employees in fiscal year 2009; and
(3) four full-time equivalent employees in fiscal years 2010 and thereafter.
(b) For any quarter in fiscal years 2007 and 2008, the amount of the health care fund contribution shall be $91.25 for each full-time equivalent employee in excess of eight. For each fiscal year after fiscal year 2008, the number of excluded full-time equivalent employees shall be adjusted in accordance with subsection (a) of this section, and the amount of the health care fund contribution shall be adjusted by a percentage equal to any percentage change in premiums for Catamount Health for that fiscal year.
(c) Health care fund contribution assessments under this chapter shall be determined on a calendar quarter basis, due and payable 30 days after the close of each quarter. Late filings, late payments and underpayments of the health care fund contribution assessments due shall be subject to the same fees, interest and penalties as pertain to contributions for unemployment compensation under chapter 17 of this title. Liability for contributions, payments, penalties, interest and costs imposed under this section may be collected and enforced in a civil action maintained under sections 1334 of this title, and under the procedures authorized by section 1336 of this title. The commissioner shall establish rules for the administration and collection of health care fund contributions under this chapter. The department shall develop a form that inquires of the health coverage status of an employee in a manner that, to the greatest extent possible, preserves the confidentiality of the type of coverage possessed by the employee. For the purpose of the employer assessment, employers shall only use this form to determine the health coverage status of an employee. To the extent feasible any reports required of employers under this chapter shall be combined with other reports and information collected from employers by the department of labor.
(d) Revenues from the health care fund contributions collected shall be deposited into the Catamount Fund established under 33 V.S.A. § 1981 for the purpose of financing health care coverage under Catamount Health assistance, as provided under subchapter 3a of chapter 19 of Title 33. (Added 2005, No. 191 (Adj. Sess.), § 34, eff. April 1, 2007; amended 2007, No. 70, § 27.)