Massachusetts Employers Must Complete New Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure Form by November 30

Massachusetts employers with six or more employees are required to annually submit the new Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure (“HIRD”) form, regardless of whether they offer health insurance to their employees or not. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) recently issued guidance on the new HIRD reporting requirements. An individual is considered to be an employee if the employer has included such individual in the quarterly wage report to the Department of Unemployment Assistance during the past 12 months. The new HIRD form only consists of a single employer form, which only needs to be completed once annually. The old HIRD form consisted of an employer form and an employee form, which required separate forms completed and signed by each employee who declined to enroll in employer-sponsored insurance (“ESI”) or the Employer’s Section 125 Cafeteria Plan to pay for health insurance.

To file your HIRD form, login to your MassTaxConnect (“MTC”) withholding account and select the “File health insurance responsibility disclosure” hyperlink under the account alerts. The HIRD reporting period will be available to be filed starting November 1 of the filing year, and must be completed by November 30. Thereafter, HIRD reporting will be due on November 30 of each subsequent year.  Although HIRD may be completed by your payroll company, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure compliance and timely filing.  The HIRD form collects employer-level information about your company’s health plan offerings and does not collect any personal information about employees.  The form will assist MassHealth in identifying its members with access to qualifying ESI who may be eligible for the MassHealth Premium Assistance Program.