Maybe I did not present myself clearly when I said “what obligations – operational and financial- are required for the employer in order to get the tax credit?” As I mentioned above, the law has about 2000 pages. There seems to be an awful amount of stuff that was passed and many may not understand all the laws and ramifications. For example, the tax credit can only be used for two years. See the original text at http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf see the bottom of p 319. The IRS also has that part of the law listed on the page http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=227404,00.html
Therefore, as far as I’m concerned the tax credit is little more than a ruse to sound like there are great benefits for small businesses. In reality, it’s a short lived benefit that returns thousands of dollars back to a business while the same law obligates the business to shell out tens of thousands ongoing.