Even if your company is in perfect compliance with PPACA, employer-sponsored health care for dependents might still be too expensive for your low-earning employees. While PPACA likely requires your company to provide health care with premiums that do not exceed 9.5 percent of employees' household income, it does not mandate affordable coverage for employees' families.

Even when an employee can get inexpensive individual coverage through your company, insuring his or her spouse and kids can still be cost-prohibitive. In fact, one study found that the cost of covering dependents could be as much as $7,252 per year for workers with one dependent child and $11,829 for those with two or more children.

Most employees assume they're locked into one of two choices: either buy dependent coverage they can't afford or pay hefty fines when they file their taxes. Under PPACA, if a child is uninsured for any month of the year, parents must pay $162.50 per child in 2015 and $347.50 per child in 2016 — regardless of whether or not they claim the child as a dependent. Not only that, but having an uninsured child means paying for checkups, immunizations, emergency room visits, and unexpected trips to the doctor out of pocket.

CHIP fixes this "family affordability glitch" by offering high-quality comprehensive health coverage for children in low- and moderate-income families that don't qualify for Medicaid.

What you need to know about CHIP

To create a stable, family-oriented workplace where employees feel valued, you need to find out if any of your employees' families qualify for CHIP.

Eligibility requirements vary, but children eligible for CHIP typically belong to families that fall between 200 percent to 300 percent of the federal poverty level ($48,500-$72,750 for a family of four). Families that earn less than that typically qualify for even more affordable coverage through Medicaid.

CHIP is usually administered through companies such as Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and that means enrolled children get access to the same or similar networks as those enrolled in private plans. However, unlike employer-sponsored health plans, there's no deductible or monthly premium and there are low co-payments for those in the lowest income brackets.

Even for those near the upper income threshold, premiums typically cost less than $50 per month, which makes CHIP a much more affordable option than employer-sponsored dependent coverage.

How to help employees enroll

Regardless of how phenomenal your company's health plan might be, it is up to you to help employees find the best, most affordable coverage for their families. Here's how to get started helping employees navigate CHIP:

• Stay up-to-date on CHIP developments. You can contact your state Medicaid or CHIP office for more information on employee eligibility. You can also visit the Kaiser Family Foundation and Kaiser Health News to track major developments. If you haven't been following the program closely, you can check out this overview.

• Attend enrollment training. Many local nonprofits offer training on CHIP enrollment. They might also have educational information that you can distribute to employees who might be eligible.

• Hire a third-party enroller. If your HR department doesn't have the capacity to offer employees individualized help with enrollment, you can hire a third-party company to screen your staff members for eligibility and help them secure coverage.

Getting up to speed on PPACA has been a major challenge for companies everywhere, but finding reasonably priced health care for an entire family can be even more overwhelming. Between deciphering the specifics of their employer-sponsored benefits package and navigating the federal exchange, working families are lucky if they can even understand all their options — let alone afford them.

As an HR manager, it's up to you to help employees access programs that can help them stretch their paychecks a little further and ensure their kids and spouses have access to the health care they deserve.