OMB Control No. 1210-0149 is the Department of Labor’s approval number for the Health Insurance Marketplace Notice, the written disclosure that Fair Labor Standards Act–covered employers must give employees under the Affordable Care Act. The requirements attached to OMB No. 1210-0149 are straightforward: use a notice that contains three specific pieces of information, deliver it to each new hire within 14 days of the start date, and keep using the current model or an equivalent while the control number remains active. The number itself is a Paperwork Reduction Act identifier, not a separate rule; what it points to is the notice created by ACA Section 1512.
What the Control Number Points To
Every federal form that collects information from the public must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act, and each approval carries a unique control number. The first four digits identify the sponsoring agency and the last four identify the specific collection.1Digital.gov. PRA Approval Process – A Guide to the Paperwork Reduction Act OMB No. 1210-0149 belongs to the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and covers the “Notice to Employees of Coverage Options Under Fair Labor Standards Act Section 18B.”2Office of Management and Budget. View Information Collection Request (ICR) Package The number is printed at the top of the DOL’s model notice, currently with an expiration date of December 31, 2026.3DOL.gov. Health Insurance Marketplace Coverage Options
The underlying statute is ACA Section 1512, which added Section 18B to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The notice exists to tell employees the Health Insurance Marketplace is available, explain how to reach it, and flag when the employee might qualify for a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 US Code 218b – Notice to Employees
Which Employers Must Send It
The obligation attaches to employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. In practice that is almost every business with at least $500,000 in annual revenue or employees engaged in interstate commerce. The requirement applies whether the employer offers health coverage or not, and DOL publishes two versions of the notice for that reason: one for employers with a plan, one for employers without.5U.S. Department of Labor. Notice to Employees of Coverage Options
Every employee counts, not just full-time staff and not just those eligible for the employer’s plan. Part-time workers, seasonal hires, and employees who decline coverage all receive the notice.
What the Notice Has to Say
The statute lists three items that must appear in every Marketplace Notice:4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 US Code 218b – Notice to Employees
- A description of the Health Insurance Marketplace, the services it offers, and how to contact it for help.
- A statement that if the employer’s plan pays less than 60 percent of the total allowed cost of benefits, the employee may be eligible for a premium tax credit or cost-sharing reduction through the Marketplace.
- A statement that buying Marketplace coverage instead of the employer’s plan may cause the employee to lose the employer’s contribution to health coverage, and that some or all of that contribution might otherwise be excludable from income for federal tax purposes.
DOL’s model notice adds a fill-in section for plan specifics: whether the plan meets the minimum value standard and whether the lowest-cost self-only option costs more than 9.12 percent of the employee’s household income.3DOL.gov. Health Insurance Marketplace Coverage Options Those figures help the employee determine Marketplace subsidy eligibility.
When It Has to Reach the Employee
New hires must receive the notice within 14 days of their start date. That is the operative deadline today. The original statutory deadline for delivering the notice to existing employees was March 1, 2013, so for anyone already on payroll before that date the obligation has long since been met; ongoing distribution applies only to new hires.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 US Code 218b – Notice to Employees
There is no annual redelivery requirement. Once an employee has received the notice at onboarding, the employer’s obligation for that individual is complete. Many employers fold the notice into their standard new-hire packet for that reason.
Using the DOL Model Notices
DOL publishes model notices in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Korean. Employers are not strictly required to use the model language, but the models are drafted to satisfy the statutory requirements, and using one is the simplest way to stay compliant.5U.S. Department of Labor. Notice to Employees of Coverage Options Custom notices are permitted, but they still need the three required disclosures and should carry the OMB control number and expiration date so the form is recognizable as compliant with the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Delivery can be on paper or, under the DOL’s electronic disclosure safe harbor, by email. The core requirement is that the notice actually reach the employee within the 14-day window.
Penalties for Missing the Notice
The statute at 29 U.S.C. § 218b does not include a penalty provision, and the Department of Labor has said informally that no fine applies specifically for failing to distribute the Marketplace Notice. That does not make it optional. An employer that systematically skips required notices can draw scrutiny in a DOL audit, and the failure can become evidence in a broader FLSA or ERISA enforcement action. The immediate financial exposure, though, is far lower than for many other ACA disclosures.
Not the Same as the Summary of Benefits and Coverage
The Marketplace Notice is often confused with the Summary of Benefits and Coverage, and the two are separate obligations. The SBC comes from Section 2715 of the Public Health Service Act, sits under a different DOL control number (OMB No. 1210-0147), and is prepared by the health plan or insurance issuer rather than by the employer as employer. The SBC also carries actual financial penalties for noncompliance, including an IRS excise tax of $100 per day per affected individual under Internal Revenue Code Section 4980D6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 4980D – Failure to Meet Certain Group Health Plan Requirements and a Public Health Service Act penalty for willful failures that is adjusted annually for inflation. If you are checking your compliance on 1210-0149, you are looking at the Marketplace Notice only; the SBC is a separate item on the checklist.
A Practical Compliance Check
For an employer covered by the FLSA, meeting the requirements tied to OMB No. 1210-0149 comes down to a short list. Confirm whether the business offers a group health plan and pick the correct version of the DOL model notice. Fill in the plan-specific fields, or the “no coverage offered” version. Build the notice into the new-hire onboarding process so it goes out within 14 days of every start date, and keep proof of delivery. Refresh the form when DOL issues an updated model, particularly as the current expiration date of December 31, 2026 approaches. Those steps satisfy the notice, and they leave a clean paper trail if the question ever comes up in an audit.