“Could you start a second company with new employees and have your first company contract services from your second company?”
The general answer is No, with exceptions.
A contracted worker, a subcontractor, a day laborer, etc, all have been defined under IRS regulations, as well as the distinctions between the different definitions of employment... this has already been through the IRS auditing process (before ACA was made law), and civil and (even a few criminal) court cases.
Every employee that is not full time status where my wife works will be dropped to no more than 25 hours Jan. 1. Almost all of those workers will now have to find a second job to make ends meet. How is it different to the IRS if the employee finds a second job, or you as the employer do it for them though?
Why not operate a separate staffing company?