Splitting up a company to avoid health care reform's employer penalties won't work. Instead, to avoid bankruptcy, business owners like David Barr say they'll fire workers and cut hours.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In the wake of the Supreme Court's health care decision, several companies with 50 or more full-time workers have embarked on a quest.

Their aim: Get below 50 and dodge the employer mandate.

The health reform law forces them to start providing insurance by 2014 or pay stiff penalties.

Kari DePhillips, who co-owns the Content Factory, a public relations firm in Pittsburgh, was hoping she could just break up the company to sidestep the rule. Maybe one firm would do marketing while the other builds websites.

The small company is on pace to exceed the 50-worker threshold in the next few years. DePhillips doesn't want to provide health care, and she definitely doesn't want to pay the penalty, which would be $2,000 per full-time worker minus the first 30.

"A $40,000 fine to my company would be catastrophic," she said.

The only problem with her break-up plan is that it won't work. The government would still consider both of her companies as one. That's because the employer mandate penalty relies on "controlled group" provisions, focusing on who controls the company -- not necessarily what they do.

It's meant to prevent skirting around the law, said Christopher Condeluci, a Washington D.C. attorney at the law firm Venable who helped draft the rule for the Senate Finance Committee.

"These rules are intended to snuff out this type of abuse," Condeluci said. "You cannot get around the employer mandate."

Originally posted here:

Inside health care's employer rules