New benefit offers education help to parents of special-needs children
Originally posted September 12, 2014 by Andrea Davis on https://ebn.benefitnews.com.
Joanne Burke can’t count the number of hours she spent researching special-needs law and preparing for meetings with educators and therapists about her daughter Gabby’s individualized education plan. Gabby, eight, was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that happens in utero when a baby’s still-developing spinal column doesn’t close all the way. When she was four, Gabby was also diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy, which caused steep cognitive regression. Today, Gabby primarily uses forearm crutches to get around and attends third grade at a public school.
It is families like Burke’s that led Adam Goldberg to launch myEdGPS, a company that helps parents of children with special needs map out an education plan for their child. It’s a program that can be offered as a standalone employee benefit, and it is also being offered through Bright Horizons, a provider of child care services as part of that company’s suite of employer offerings. The Bright Horizons program, Special and Exceptional Needs, powered by myEdGPS, will be exclusively offered to companies with more than 3,500 U.S. employees by College Coach, a division of Bright Horizons specializing in providing answers to education concerns.
Burke’s employer, an automotive parts supplier based in Michigan where Burke lives with her husband and Gabby, has been supportive of her need for flexibility. They’ve offered Burke a flex-time schedule where she starts at 6:30 a.m. and leaves the office by 2:30 p.m. to collect Gabby from school. And, when she returned to work after Gabby was born, she was able to work from home on days when Gabby had multiple medical appointments. Still, when Gabby was ready to go to school, Burke spent countless hours attempting to figure out the family’s options. While she investigated sending Gabby to a private school, in the end, the private school could not handle Gabby’s multiple needs. Through the public school system, Gabby has access to physical and occupational therapy, as well as speech therapy.
“It's just a lot of juggling. It's almost like having two full-time jobs at once,” says Burke. “The case management aspect of it can be pretty heavy at times. It's not all the time, but if there's any sort of medical issue going on, it can take up a lot more time and effort to manage all of that at once.”
After years of providing private consulting services to parents who could afford to pay for it, Goldberg, who holds a masters’ degree in education with a concentration in assessment, realized that “we were turning away 95% of folks who couldn’t afford to pay for these types of private services,” he says. “This really was the manifestation of my burning desire to democratize the model and be able to scale it through technology so that we could have an impact on millions of children and their families out there.”
One in five children struggle with some type of special or exceptional need and Goldberg estimates that translates into an impact on 10% or more of the workforce. Working parents lose up to five hours a week running around to various doctor, therapist and teacher appointments, to say nothing of the hours they spend filling out paperwork and figuring out who’s paying for what.
Goldberg likens myEdGPS to TurboTax for special education because when parents first enter the online system, they’re asked a series of questions, a virtual intake of sorts. Then, depending on how far long parents are in their journey, the system serves up a series of roadmaps designed to guide parents and give them the necessary information, depending on what their needs and goals are.
They system also includes a virtual binder that can be accessed on any mobile device to help manage and store all the documentation involved. There’s also a calendar feature, which Goldberg says is particularly useful since different states have different timelines for when certain documentation needs to be provided and to whom.
“Once the system knows your child is being educated in Ohio, for example, and you request an evaluation, the system knows to alert you that within X number of school or calendar days, based on Ohio regulations, that you should expect to hear a response back from the school and then it goes to the next step in the timeline,” he explains.
The system also includes a behavioral tracking journal for parents and a letter generator “so that you can get it right the first time when you’re requesting an evaluation from the school or an independent evaluation of the school, or requesting a team meeting to address an issue,” says Goldberg.
Bright Horizons is currently piloting the program with a handful of companies, says CEO David Lissy. It’s included in the company’s core offerings but employers can also customize the program to include in-person education onsite and/or live webinars.
And apart from helping employers with productivity issues, Goldberg says myEdGPS offers the opportunity for tangible savings on health care expenses.
“What most people don't know -- including parents, administrators, and especially employers -- is that the knee-jerk reaction is to go to the medical plan if you suspect something's going on with your child, without any knowledge that you can actually get some of these same exact services from a school,” he explains. “That's a federally mandated system. The two systems [health care and education] really don't talk to each other that well. What we're doing is we're helping empower these parents to be able to understand what their rights are and how to go about it, step by step, finding the right help in the right ways through schools.”
For example, an employee has a five-year-old child who may not be hitting certain developmental milestones. The parent’s first instinct is to take the child to the pediatrician, who then refers the child to a series of specialists. Each visit requires the parent to take time off work, the medical plan incurs costs and the employee may have co-pays to deal with.
“The reality is, at the very beginning you should also be requesting an evaluation through school, because it's free if you ask for it in the right way,” says Goldberg, adding that there’s a whole host of related services, including speech language therapy and some behavioral therapies, that are within the legal construct of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“All of this fundamentally is supposed to be free and in very many cases overlap with those medical services,” he says.
For Joanne Burke, who researched all of daughter Gabby’s educational and therapeutic needs herself, a service like myEdGPS would have been invaluable. “If I had access to a resource like this it would free up valuable time to address other issues,” she says. “The law is complex and learning how it affects our daughter as well as learning about accommodations and assistive technology is constantly in the back if my mind.”
Many of us get forced to retire; How to prepare yourself to handle a tough transition
Originally posted September 24, 2014 Wednesday by Rodney Brooks in USA Today, First Edition, Money; Pg. 3B and on https://www.ifebp.org.
That retirement you're looking forward to in five years: Be prepared for it sooner than you expect.
Numerous surveys have shown that people think that they are going to retire later than it happens. The two big reasons: health issues and losing your job. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 47% of American retirees in a 2013 survey retired before they planned, mostly because of health or disability.
Unplanned early retirement can create havoc with your retirement plans. Those five or 10 additional years of saving were no longer possible. Some may have had to take Social Security earlier than expected.
"I have several clients and families who have gone through this," says Greg Sullivan, with Sullivan, Bruyette, Speros & Blayney In McLean, Va. "What we are always doing is trying to keep our clients prepared for the unexpected."
Others are not prepared psychologically.
"Don't leave your retirement to hopium," says Kimberly Foss, president of Empyrion Wealth Management in Roseville, Calif., author of Wealthy by Design. "Hopium is a foolish hope. It allows people to ignore sometimes unexpected realities, such as unemployment. It keeps people from making a proper plan. If they do ignore it, it leads to financial ruin."
How to be ready:
Do an assessment. Sullivan says you should look at cash flow, balance sheet, insurance and estate plans to get an idea of where you are today and the impact of earlier-than-expected retirement.
Plan for the unexpected. "If you pre-rehearse those types of contingencies, you are far more likely to make good decisions in an emotional moment," says Joe Sicchitano, head of wealth planning for SunTrust Bank.
It's not that different from helping children who are afraid of monsters in the closet, Sicchitano says. "The best solution is turn the light on, and see how big he is, how scary he is.
"Build an emergency fund. "You want to make sure you've built an adequate emergency fund," says Marc Freedman, president CEO of Freedman Financial in Peabody, Mass., and author of Retiring for the Genius. "Six to 12 months of your living expenses," he says. "If you are 55 and faced with retiring soon, you should be able to do that.
"Consider what you want in retirement. Once people get into their 50s, they need to look at how early they can retire, based on what they want, says Joe Franklin, president of Franklin Wealth Management in Hixson, Tenn. "Determine at what age you are independent enough to say, 'I can keep working if I enjoy it or leave if I don't like it.'
"Reduce debt. "The more you can lower your committed expenses, the more flexibility you have," says Sicchitano.
Maximize contributions to your 401(k) and minimize fees. Jerry Schlichter, partner in the St. Louis law firm of Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, says the more attention you've paid to your retirement plan, the better you position yourself for an unexpected retirement. "You want to avoid paying fees that will deplete those assets. The Department of Labor has said a 1% difference in fees over a work life expectancy of 25 years will make a 28% difference in the retirement assets you have. Watch your fees, and make sure they are appropriate. Your company has a duty to make sure you are paying reasonable fees."
New-age challenges for employee privacy
Originally posted September 23, 2014 by Michael Giardina on https://ebn.benefitnews.com.
An individual’s online behavior and presence may seem like their own business, but when it comes to on-the-job use of social networks, the rules have changed. And as benefit managers and their HR teams do their due diligence to try to find the ideal candidate for a position, are they overstepping the law by requiring new hires to allow an employer access to the candidate’s online life?
How can employers ensure that current employees or potential hires are the right fit for their workplace without crossing the line — and taking steps enforcement agencies and new state laws deem too intrusive? As they look for answers, many companies will find that guidance has been a bit fuzzy.
Employers, including private companies and educational institutions, are being forcibly excluded from their employees’ social media accounts as privacy advocates push for more action from legislators. This year, New Hampshire became the 18th state to enact laws that promote employee and student privacy when it comes to employer access to personal online account information.
Five other states in 2014 and nearly a dozen others in 2013 have pushed forward with similar provisions to protect employee privacy, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“I don’t think it’s surprising that more states are enacting legislation,” says Jaklyn Wrigley, an associate at law firm Fisher & Phillips, who represents employers in Mississippi and on the federal level. “It’s a personal realm; that’s where you engage in communication with people that don’t have anything to do with work or school. So it makes sense — unless there is a reason for the employer or university to really stick its nose into that aspect of your personal business — that it is protected without fear of some sort of retaliation.”
The issue of employer social media access was first addressed in 2012 with the introduction of the Password Protection Act, which aimed to prevent employers from demanding access to their potential or current workers’ personal social media accounts. At the time, a Workplace Options and Public Policy Polling survey discovered that 89% of American workers felt their employers had no right to demand their social media login information, and 68% predicted that forcing workers to hand over this information would cripple the already shaky employer-employee relationship.
Alan King, president and chief operating officer of Workplace Options, explains that employer access to personal online information remains “a tricky issue.”
“There are several levels of concern for both parties, but when you look at the big picture, it really boils down to trust, engagement and security,” King says. “It’s dangerous to say that prohibiting employer access to search or monitor employee activity online or through social media sites will improve employee well-being across the board. That may be the case in some instances; it may not be in others.”
According to King, there is a fine line for both employers and employees to walk when policing this new-age issue.
“Employees need to know that what they do or say online or outside of work can impact their professional lives, even if they are off the clock,” he says. “But employers also need to hear and understand that too much interest in what an employee does in their personal life can be bad for
business.”
From a legal perspective, employers may be taking the wrong approach when considering an employee’s (or potential employee’s) personal life in their review process. But even before bans on employer access to social media and online account passwords were considered by state and federal lawmakers, employees did have protective safeguards in place.
“A lot of employers just assume that if it’s on the Internet, it’s fair game — and that’s not the case,” says Louis L. Chodoff, partner at national law firm Ballard Spahr.
“Social media in hiring comes up where employers like to do their own Google searches on people, and sometimes applicants will not privatize any parts of their Facebook page,” explains Chodoff. “The trouble that employers will get into sometimes is that they will access information that they shouldn’t be considering in the hiring process.”
He adds that employers should “insulate the decision makers from any information that may be considered in a protected class,” anyone who could suffer discrimination because of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. Under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, formal guidance on the issue has been less concrete. The enforcement agency has yet to issue formal guidelines for employers to follow when implementing social media policies, but has commented on its encroachment in employment issues.
At a meeting addressing social media in the workplace, Carol R. Miaskoff, acting associate legal counsel at the EEOC, referenced the Internet-age medium’s impact on equal employment opportunity law.
“When an employer or other entity is covered by the EEO laws, their recruitment, selection, and employment decisions and activities are subject to the EEO laws, regardless of the media they happen to use,” she said.
While noting that regulations do not prohibit specific technologies, she highlighted that “the key question under the EEO laws is how the selection tools are used.”
Miaskoff says the National Labor Relations Board has been keeping an eye on employer social media policies as they pertain to violations of Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which mandates that employees have the right to organize. Organing activities, whether in-person or online, fall under the veil of “protected concerted activity,” according to NLRB.
Employees also need to be very clear about a company’s internal social media policy, to help prevent an ill-timed or unflattering Facebook or Twitter post from turning into a major public liability. Claire Bissot, HR consulting manager at CBIZ, a business services company, says a proactive stance on the rules can help avoid accidental (or genuinely injurious) messages from going viral.
“You should have a social media policy and certain expectations about what you expect about them; [including] not to give confidential information, not to post negative things about the company and other people, or say this is a view of the company,” says Bissot. “But I believe if you truly encourage your employees to feel like they have ownership in their company, and where they work, they are not going to do malicious things on social media.”
Meanwhile, social media monitoring proposals remained a hot button issue among state legislatures in 2014, and are likely to continue in 2015. As Wrigley notes, social media awareness and privacy concerns in the workplace are not going away anytime soon.
“[The legislation landscape] is really interesting in this age where everyone and their mother is on social media. So it makes sense that lawmakers have an eye to protect their constituents, and employers are also mindful of the privacy rights of [their] employees and applicants,”
Wrigley says.
She explains that it is also logical for employers to prepare themselves by developing a company social media policy, if they haven’t already.
But employers “need not go with [their] gut” when crafting and deciding specific policies, Bissot advises.
“They need to make sure they are taking the right steps,” she notes. “You don’t want to be the one that defines the case. With social media, it’s new ground, it’s new territory, and you want to make sure you are doing it correctly and appropriately for the culture.”
At the same time, Chodoff, an expert on labor and employment law, agrees that social media policies should leave nothing up to chance or assumption.
“I think social media policies have to be very specific about what employees can and can’t do,” Chodoff says. He warns that a savings clause in policies may also miss the ball when it comes to Section 7 because it may be deemed too broad by the NLRB.
“The NLRB will say that infringes on their Section 7 rights,” Chodoff notes. “So say, ‘you can’t make defamatory comments about people.’ You have to make sure that policy is being very specifically written in regards to what it is prohibiting.”
Is it time for a checkup for your client's 401(k) plan?
As we approach the end of the plan year for most plans, now is a good time for plan administrators and plan sponsors to give their 401(k) plans a quick once over to see if everything is properly in place. The IRS even provides a 401(k) plan checklist with some suggested corrective mechanisms that can be taken to bring plans into compliance.
A good starting place for a compliance tune up is to see if you can answer some basic questions about your plan:
- Who are the trustees?
- Who is the plan administrator?
- Who are the outside service providers and how often are they contacted?
- What are the plan’s eligibility rules and who is responsible for verifying them?
- How are participants notified of eligibility?
- How is plan documentation distributed?
- Where are the plan records kept?
- Who is responsible for preparing and filing the form 5500?
After you get past these, some basic questions about plan administration come into play:
- Who keeps track of contributions and limits?
- How does the plan define “compensation”?
- What is the vesting schedule?
- Are there required contributions from the employer?
- Who is responsible for the discrimination testing?
- Does the plan permit loans and how are they tracked?
- Who is responsible for reporting to participants?
- How are distributions made and who is the contact person?
The reason I bring this topic up is that I was recently working with a client who had one person who was solely responsible for benefit administration. Unfortunately that person passed away suddenly and no other person in the organization could answer any questions about the 401(k) plan. Although it seems like the above information is simple to collect, the company still spent hours and hours recreating the plan history because they neglected to keep a record of how the answers to these questions had changed over the years.
Think of your 401(k) plan as a well maintained car. It needs a check up on a regular basis to keep running smoothly. You have to keep records of what was done and you have to know where the important information is if you need it. Just like your car, you hope your 401(k) plan never breaks down. But in anticipation of a future problem, it is worthwhile to stop and make a record of the responsibility for plan administration and the current status of the plan. That way it will be easier to make repairs if they ever become needed.
8 tips to share with employees to ensure a successful open enrollment
Originally posted on https://ebn.benefitnews.com.
As open enrollment season approaches, benefit managers are moving into high gear as they prepare to answer employee questions and concerns about their 2015 benefits. And as employees take on more responsibility for their health care, it’s more important than ever for them to understand how they can make the most of the programs and benefits their employers are offering.
Here are eight tips from benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt that benefit managers can share with employees to help ensure open enrollment runs smoothly.
Employers are taking steps to make enrollment quicker and easier. “Many companies are designing the process so it is similar to an online retail shopping experience, where employees can access decision support tools and other resources that can help them narrow down their choices and weigh them against their specific needs,” says Joann Hall Swenson, health engagement leader at Aon Hewitt. “Employers are also stepping up their efforts to clearly communicate what is changing from previous years, using a variety of communication methods.” Encourage employees to take advantage of the resources you provide.
Understanding their past needs and estimating their future needs will help employees determine what adjustments they may need to make in their benefits selections for 2015. Encourage employees to start by reviewing how much they’ve spent in the past year out-of-pocket, the costs of their regular prescriptions and the number of doctor visits they’ve had. If they are participating in a flexible spending account, encourage them to re-evaluate their contribution levels based on their actual and anticipated expenses for 2015. It’s also important to think about any life changes that may impact their decisions, such as an addition to the family or the development of a new medical condition that may impact health care expenses.
Over the past few years, there have been many changes taking place in the provider community, including doctor’s groups joining together and hospitals and health systems re-contracting with insurers. As a result, health plan options may include vastly different combinations of doctors and hospitals than in the past. Most employers and health plans offer a number of tools and resources that can help employees assess the cost impact and quality of different providers as they make their enrollment decisions.
CDHPs often have lower premiums, which make them an attractive option for individuals who want to reduce the costs taken out of their paychecks each month. While employees may have a higher deductible to meet, many employers couple these plans with health reimbursement accounts or health savings accounts, which employees can use to help pay for eligible out-of-pocket health care costs. HSAs are the most common, and allow employees to save money by contributing, on a pre-tax basis, up to $3,350 in 2015 or $6,650 if they have family coverage, with no use-it-or-lose-it rule. In addition, employers may also contribute to the HSA. It’s important for employees to understand how the employer’s contributions work so they can maximize this subsidy.
If an employee’s spouse, partner or adult children have access to health coverage elsewhere, including through their employer, it may be more cost effective for them to enroll in this coverage instead of being covered by you. Encourage employees to carefully review and compare these plans to ensure they are choosing the coverage they need at the most favorable cost.
Many employers offer a wide range of health and wellness programs, such as health assessments, weight loss programs and health coaching, to help employees get and stay healthy. Taking part in these programs can help employees understand their current health status, and they might even be able to take advantage of a financial incentive for doing so.
2015 will be the second year of coverage available to Americans through the marketplaces, commonly referred to as “public exchanges.” In most cases, individuals with coverage through their employer will not be eligible for federal tax credits for purchase of insurance through the marketplaces. Employees can visit healthcare.gov to learn more about the marketplaces.
As employees assess their health plan options for 2015, it’s important for them to look holistically at their health and financial well-being, including health care, income protection (e.g., life and disability insurance) and retirement planning. Does their spending reflect their needs and priorities? For example, if they aren’t contributing to your 401(k) plan, remind them that now might be a good time to start. Beginning to save earlier in their careers will help ensure they’re on track to meet their long-term savings goals.
Leading CEOs partner to inspire wellness programs across all U.S. employers
Half of all Americans have at least one chronic disease, says Jason Grumet, president of the BPC and moderator at the event. Grumet says that the major employers taking part in the CEO Council represent a unique combination of good ideas with great people who have the ability to get things done, he said.
Lowell McAdam, chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, says technology and wearable devices are going to be some of the biggest wellness tools of the future. McAdam says the company is already using technology-enabled, mobile health clinics to connect children with quality health care, as well as employing remote monitoring tools to enable seniors with chronic conditions.
Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, says his company uses incentivizing measures to help employees maintain their health. The bank provides additional funding for biometric screenings, and each year, if an employee remains at or below their numbers, health care costs will remain flat the following year.
Along with issuing a joint report, BPC launched an interactive Web site containing a slew of resources to support implementation of new programs among other employers.
What are the 4 types of private exchanges?
Private exchanges are an ever-popular option for employers to provide health insurance to both their active and retiree populations. Estimates put the number of private exchanges at around 150, but according to PricewaterHouseCoopers Health Research Institute, they can be broken into four types. Barbara Gniewek, principal and private exchange lead with PwC in New York City, explains these are grouped based on their genesis, or their beginnings.
- Technology: This includes such companies as bSwift and Benefitfocus; many developed public exchanges in states that built their own, PwC says. Others are known for providing benefits administration as either an outsourced solution or enrollment for insurers. “They are like the vending machines [of private exchanges]; they provide infrastructure and you decide what products you want and what brands to have,” Gniewek says. “They are highly flexible.”
- Pure Play: These are very new technology infused and highly flexible systems that include such companies as Liazon. They are like a pre-stocked vending machine as they come with products on the shelves, including medical plans with certain carriers, Gniewek adds.
- Broker/Consultant: Calling these “really interesting,” Gniewek says they are built on technology platforms. They include such companies as Aon Hewitt and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Some of these are built in-house by the broker or consultant, but in many cases, are the result of partnering with a technology company
- Insurer: Including such companies as Cigna and Aetna, their strategy was to build their own private exchange to protect market share and separate themselves from the competition. The insurers, Gniewek adds, may also have relationships with networks and have clients they want to protect. Many of these also use technology developed by others.
So how does an employer pick which model to choose? Employers often rely on their advisers, including brokers and consultants – many of whom have their own exchanges. Gniewek says when PwC helps a client they do two main things as an evaluation:
First, an understanding what the employer is looking for, including making their own plan design or enhancing a strategy they already have. “Depending on what they are looking for, exchanges that meet their needs can differ greatly,” she says.
PwC also helps employers understand the different models and which plays to their employee size. “Which ones can best meet [employer’s] needs?” she asks. “That is what the consultant needs to do.”
6 ways to overcome distractions
Originally posted by Erin Bramblett, HR specialist with Insperity, an HR outsourcing firm on https://ebn.benefitnews.com.
If anyone knows a thing or two about multitasking, it’s benefit managers. From understanding the compliance complexities of the Affordable Care Act to navigating the nuances of ERISA, benefit managers are experts at juggling several priorities. Yet multitasking and having to deal with constant interruptions can negatively affect work quality, according to a recent study from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
“Prioritize what you need to get done as an employee and do those things early in the day,” says Bramblett. “Focus on what needs to get done, whether it’s three things or five things, and focus on those until they’re done.”
“Write that bulleted list, include scheduled breaks and cross them off as you complete them. That will help you stay focused,” advises Bramblett. “And taking a mental break in between tasks will help employees shift gears a little more easily.”
A five-minute break to update your status can easily turn into a 30-minute waste of time, says Bramblett, who advises keeping social media pages closed during the work day. But if you absolutely can’t go all day without seeing what those crazy cats on Instagram are up to, then schedule it as part of your break on your to-do list.
“It’s hard to not say ‘yes’ to every assignment that comes your way,” says Bramblett. “But you’ve got to make sure you’re keeping your to-do list at a realistic level.” She advises communicating with your team, your boss or your clients to make sure your daily priorities are correct and that you’re finding out which things are most important for you to get done each day.
“It is scientifically proven that individuals work better when they are single-tasking,” says Bramblett, citing an American Psychological Association study that showed multitasking undermines efficiency by as much as 40%.
“If employees feel like they have to multitask because their boss keeps coming at them with multiple projects and asking for updates on 15 different things in a day, that would certainly be something that would create that environment so you want to ensure you create that work-life balance,” advises Bramblett.
IRS drafts instructions for ACA reporting requirements
Originally posted September 11, 2014 by Keith R. McMurdy on https://ebn.benefitnews.com.
They promised they would be coming and now they have. On Aug. 28, the Internal Revenue Service issued draft instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C and Forms 1094-B and 1095-B, which I provided in my July 31 entry.
These forms were provided in draft format and they are used to satisfy Affordable Care Act’s “information reporting requirements.” We also got draft instructions for Form 1095-A that relates to the statement about the Health Insurance Exchange Marketplace. The IRS has indicated that it will finalize the forms and instructions in 2014. On top of that, they issued some FAQs that address the reporting requirements.
As a starting point, the FAQs provide that some short-term penalty relief will be available for incomplete or incorrect information returns that are filed (or employee statements provided to employees) in 2016 for coverage offered, or not offered, in 2015. Under this relief, the IRS will not impose penalties on employers that can demonstrate that they made good faith efforts to comply with the information reporting requirements. This relief applies to returns and statements filed and furnished in 2016 to report offers of coverage in 2015 for incorrect or incomplete information reported on the return or statement, but the relief is not available if you fail to file. You have to show a good faith effort to comply so you cannot simply not file anything an expect relief.
With respect to the instructions themselves, to say that they are lengthy is an understatement. Employers should read them in detail to understand their obligations. However, some key provisions that help in compliance include:
- Clarification that employers must file Forms 1095-C and 1094-C with the IRS, and provide a copy of Form 1095-C to employees.
- A statement that, as noted above, forms 1095-C and 1094-C information returns are not required for 2014. Actual filings are not required until 2016 for the 2015 calendar year but employers may voluntarily file these forms in 2015 for 2014. If by chance an employer does choose to voluntarily files in 2015 for the 2014 year, penalties for the employer mandate payments will not be assessed for 2014.
- Establishment of specific dues dates for Forms 1095-C and 1094-C information returns. They must be filed by February 28 (for paper filings), or March 31 (for electronic filings) of the year following the calendar year to which the return relates.
- Clarification that a Form 1094-C must be attached to any Forms 1095-C filed by an employer. Each employer must file one 1094-C that reports aggregate employer-level data for all the employer’s full-time employees, which is referred to as the “authoritative transmittal” (and denoted accordingly on Line 19 of the Form 1094-C). Only one authoritative transmittal may be filed for each employer.
- Employers also must provide a Form 1095-C to each full-time employee by Jan. 31 of the year after the year to which the form relates (so that would be Jan. 31, 2016 for the 2015 reporting year). Incidentally, employee statements must be furnished to individuals in paper format by mail, unless the individual affirmatively consents to receiving the statement electronically.
As with the forms, the instructions are in draft format and subject to change and finalization. However, between the draft forms and the draft instructions, employers should now be able to ascertain generally what is required of them in reporting. Even though the mandatory reporting requirement does not completely kick in until after 2015, employers should spend some time reviewing these requirements with their plan professionals, preferably sooner rather than later, to get a sense of what data they will have to collect and how who has responsibility for making sure the information is accurate.