The ICHRA 90-day notice.
An ICHRA has exactly one hard deadline: a written notice to every eligible employee, generally 90 days before the plan year starts. Here is when it's due, what it must say, and the federal model that makes it good-faith compliance.
When it's due.
The standing rule
Each eligible employee generally must receive the written notice at least 90 days before the plan year begins. For a January 1 plan year, that lands in early October of the year before.
New hires and the newly eligible
Someone who becomes eligible inside that 90-day window — a new hire, a class change — gets the notice no later than the first day their ICHRA coverage can take effect.
The backward calendar
January 1 start → notice out by early October → employer decision realistically made by late September. The one hard deadline in the whole arrangement is this letter.
What it must say.
Educational summary of the federal rule — not legal or tax advice.
The terms of the offer — the allowance amount for that employee, who is eligible, and the dates it runs.
The premium-tax-credit consequence: an affordable offer replaces the credit, an unaffordable one preserves it through the opt-out — the notice is how employees learn which trade they're making.
The requirement to actually be enrolled in individual coverage (or Medicare) to use the allowance, with substantiation.
The opt-out right, and that gaining the ICHRA opens a special enrollment period to buy a plan mid-year.
The Departments publish a model notice (OMB control number 1210-0160) whose instructions state that timely use constitutes good-faith compliance — the notice is a fill-in exercise, not a drafting project.
Notice questions, answered.
When is the ICHRA notice due?
Generally at least 90 days before the plan year begins — early October for a January 1 year. Employees who become eligible inside that window (new hires, class changes) must get it no later than the first day their coverage can take effect.
Is there an official template?
Yes. The Departments published a model notice (OMB control number 1210-0160), and its own instructions state that timely use of the model constitutes good-faith compliance. There is no reason to draft one from scratch.
What happens if the notice goes out late?
The notice is how employees learn the offer's effect on their premium tax credit before they have to act on it — a late notice muddies opt-out and credit decisions that have real dollar consequences for employees, which is why the 90-day date is the one deadline worth building the whole calendar around.
Does Insurf prepare the notice?
Yes — generating the program paperwork, including the employee notice on the federal model, is part of the day-one kit, alongside the computed allowance and each employee's guided plan choice. Every generated document leads with its own disclaimer and the employer remains the plan's sponsor and decision-maker.
Work the calendar backward from January 1.
Insurf, Inc. is not a licensed insurance agency, does not sell insurance, and receives no commissions; enrollment applications are submitted by an individually licensed insurance producer. This page is an educational overview — not an offer of coverage, not a recommendation to buy any plan, and not financial, tax, legal, medical, coverage, or insurance advice.