Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in the case ofKing vs. Burwell, the ball is back in thecourt of consumers and employers.

How are employers responding? Mercer, a health plan advisor inNew York City, recently asked 600 of them exactly that. Here iswhat their survey found:

• More employers (29 percent) believe the decision will have apositive effect than a negative effect (17 percent), although aslight majority (54 percent) doesn’t believe this ruling affectsthem one way or the other. The larger the employer, the more likelythey are to see the ruling as a positive for theirorganization.

• Just below one-half (45 percent) said they are consideringsteering retirees to the public exchange or have already begun todo so. A retiree moving from an employer-sponsored plan to theexchange would almost certainly have more options on the exchange,and be able to consider cost and level of coverage in selecting aplan.

• Employers are much less likely to consider the public exchangeas an alternative source of coverage for currently eligiblepart-time employees. Just 24 percent of respondents that providecoverage to employees working fewer than 30 hours per week saidthey are considering this strategy or already have it in place.

• Forty-five percent of all respondents that currently offercoverage to early retirees said they are considering steeringretirees to the public exchange or already have begun to doso. An employer considering terminating medical coverage for earlyretirees would need to evaluate whether their employees mighthave—or claim—a legal right to continued access to anemployer-sponsored plan upon retirement.

• Relatively few respondents—16 percent—believe that the increasein the number of Americans with health insurance has affected theiremployees’ ability to access health care so far. Still, it isenough of a concern that some employers have begun to addressaccess with solutions like telemedicine or on-site medical clinics.

• The vast majority of employers said they had not been waitingfor this decision before taking further action to comply withreporting requirements.

“The good news we see out of this survey is that employersare starting to see win-win opportunities in the availability ofsubsidized coverage through the public exchanges,” said TracyWatts, Mercer’s leader for health reform.

“Also, it’s a good thing employers weren’t too distracted by allthe buzz around this case, because they need to be collecting datanow to provide the reporting information required in early 2016.And let’s not forget that about a third of employers are on trackto hit the excise tax in 2018 unless they take steps to avoidit.”