By now you should be prepared and ready to go for your 2020 employee benefits open enrollment. You should have all your plan documents and have prepared or held presentations for your staff to explain the benefits package and any major changes to the plans that you offer.
Employees should be familiar with how to use the enrollment portal and who they should talk to if they have questions.
To be on the safe side, there are a few things you should do to make sure you maximize enrollment, that your employees have the correct materials and that you are in compliance with the law.
Take an active role — Most of the policy selection is done online, but that doesn’t mean you can’t support your employees and let them know you are there in case they have any questions or are confused about any aspect of the benefits package.
You should want all of your employees to choose the package that best fits their individual needs. To ensure they make the best possible choices and have a successful experience, motivate them to take an active role in their education by encouraging questions and showing them where they can find answers in the online enrollment platform.
Last-minute blasts — You’ve probably sent a few e-mail reminders to your staff, but most certainly some of them still missed those communications. Make sure you send a few extra blasts at different times of the week, like Tuesday at 10 a.m. and another on Thursday at 2 p.m.
You should also have all of your employees’ mobile phone numbers, and sending them reminder text messages is a sure-fire way to get in front of the ones who may not be as diligent about monitoring their e-mail.
Double-check your plan materials — Do a final review of your plan documents for any necessary updates regarding member eligibility, plan benefits, new vendors and name changes to ensure that the current state of your benefits offerings is complete and accurate.
Also, do a final review of your summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) and your summary plan description (SPD) to make sure they reflect any changes from the prior year. This is crucial as both documents are required under the law.
The SPD may include the elements necessary to meet the requirements of the SBC, but it also needs to be a separate document that can be handed out with respect to each coverage option made available to the participants.
To account for the annual open enrollment window, double-check your open enrollment schedule, deadlines, documents and forms, coverage options and changes, phone numbers, and website and mobile information for contacting resources, statement of current coverage, and plan-specific summaries and rates.
Identify staff that didn’t enroll last year — To make sure you maximize participation and that nobody misses out, run a list of all your staff who didn’t sign up for benefits last year so you can approach them individually and convey the importance of securing health coverage.
While you’re at it, make sure that all of your new hires in the past year have also signed up for coverage and that you didn’t miss them when sending out reminders about open enrollment.
Check compliance with ACA — If you are an “applicable large employer” under the Affordable Care Act, meaning that you have more than 50 full-time or full-time equivalent employees, you are obligated under the law to provide health coverage to your staff that is “affordable” and covers 10 essential benefits.
There is a figure for what is considered affordable, which changes every year. For your plan to be considered ACA-compliant, it must not cost an employee more than 9.78% of their household income.
ACA refresher — The ACA remains as controversial and misunderstood as ever and most people only know what they have heard about it from their favorite news outlet, which can result in a skewed, and often incorrect understanding of the law.
Also, there have been a number of changes to the law during the last few years, the biggest of which is the elimination of the penalties associated with individuals not securing health insurance as required by the individual mandate portion of the law.
Give your staff a last-minute refresher to help them understand how the ACA affects their health insurance — and what the employer’s and their obligations are under the law.
