As of July 15, 2011, New York state employers must report if dependent health insurance benefits are available to their employees on quarterly wage and new hire reports. The Low Income Support Obligation and Performance Improvement Act ("the Act") is an effort to increase the number of children enrolled in health insurance programs.

Quarterly Wage Reporting

Under the Act, employers must now disclose on Form NYS-45 the availability of dependent health insurance benefits to employees. The NYS-45 is expected to be revised shortly to include a new entry for the availability of dependent health insurance benefits beginning with the third quarter of 2011.

New Hire Reporting

The Act requires employers to report whether dependent health insurance benefits are available to newly hired or re-hired employees, as well as the date that such employees become eligible for dependent health coverage. The availability of dependent health coverage must be reported on Form IT-2104 or Form IT-2104-E to comply with the Act. Both Form IT-2104 and Form IT 2104-E were updated in May 2011 to reflect this new requirement. It should be noted that while employers could previously meet their new hire reporting obligations by submitting a Form W-4, that form alone no longer suffices.

Impact on Employers

Since the new quarterly wage and new hire reporting requirements are already in effect, New York State employers should immediately start compliance efforts. Employers using payroll providers to file quarterly wage and new hire reports should coordinate with their payroll providers to determine how to identify and report employees who qualify for dependent health insurance benefits.