WASHINGTON - Most provisions of the new health care law won€™t go into effect for another three years, but employers are already trying to understand what the new regulations will mean for their business. The Internal Revenue Service has been pestered with questions about which employees will be classified as "full time" and other concerns, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Causing the confusion is the requirement that companies with 50 or more full-time employees must give affordable insurance or pay a fine. The questions of how to decide which workers count as full time and what "affordable" means has companies lobbying for clarification.

Members of the Employers for Flexibility in Health Care coalition, including NACS have asked the IRS for a longer adjustment period that would keep penalties at bay for a year or more after certain employees start work. If approved, one of the health care law€™s central provisions could be undermined: insuring those who can€™t currently pay for insurance.

Restaurants, merchants and other businesses that use seasonal, temporary and other employees with flex scheduling contend it€™s difficult to determine full-time status. Another concern relates to the "affordable" standard, which comes to around 9/5 percent of a worker€™s household income. The sticky point in that is employers can€™t figure that out if they don€™t know how much spouses or dependents contribute to household earnings, which could violate privacy laws. Such information couldn€™t be verified, either.

In May, the agency said it was considering giving businesses a "look-back" period between three and 12 months to see if particular employees qualified as full time. Once a worker reached that benchmark, then the employer would begin offering insurance or paying the penalty.

Meanwhile, most states have been dragging their feet to meet the deadline for setting up insurance exchanges.