Adhering to the many benefits-related regulations is more than a set of legal obligations; it presents HR professionals with an opportunity to protect those we serve.
Whether you’re an HR generalist, a CHRO, or a benefits administrator, you’re already keenly aware that the people you serve—your employees—rely on you for a lot more than ensuring they get paid on time. The benefits your team provides ensure that your employees and their covered dependents feel safe, secure and protected every day, whether on or off the clock.
And when it comes to benefits compliance, it’s all about ensuring you’re doing your job right for all the right reasons.
Start by taking inventory
While protecting the rights and privacy of employees and members in your benefits system is a shared responsibility across your organization and your vendors, HR/benefits professionals fill a special role in ensuring compliance. It all starts with knowing how to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of health and welfare regulations at the state and federal levels.
That’s why we developed the Businessolver Compliance Inventory. Updated three to four times per year, this guide helps HR professionals navigate nearly 100 state and federal compliance issues, including easy-to-follow instructions for sending required notices to plan participants.
While the primary audience for this resource is benefits administrators, the real winners are the employees they serve. By helping HR professionals understand their responsibilities under a myriad of quickly evolving regulations, their employees’ rights are preserved and their privacy protected.
Find opportunity in obligation
Benefits professionals are well-versed in compliance issues and often regard them as obligations that yield few, if any, opportunities to improve benefits’ cost-effectiveness or overall benefits strategy. Failing to comply with COBRA notice requirements, for example, can result in a fine or an excise tax of $100 per person per day per violation.
Occasionally, though, a regulation comes along for which the potential opportunities far outweigh the burden of the obligation. A good example is the Transparency in Coverage Rule. Finalized in late 2020, the rule seeks to allow Americans to more accurately predict their healthcare costs by helping them find and filter care providers within their network and location, and with respect to the amounts paid toward their deductible and out-of-pocket maximum
With effective dates staggered across a three-year period, the new regulation methodically peels back the curtain that has obscured the personal and macro-economics of healthcare for decades. And for benefits professionals, there’s never been a better opportunity to increase employees’ engagement in their healthcare and pharmacy benefits.
For plan years beginning on or after:
Jan. 1, 2022 | Jan. 1, 2023 | Jan. 1, 2024 |
Publicly disclose:
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Disclose to participants via online self-service tool:
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Disclose to participants via an online self-service tool:
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Empowering employees with resources like these not only helps them make more informed decisions, it also provides employers with the opportunity to save on their healthcare and pharmacy costs.
Don’t get caught by surprise
Another example of a compliance issue having a positive impact on employees and employers alike is the No Surprises Act. Signed into law in late 2020, this long-awaited regulation protects patients from previously unforeseeable or unavoidably high medical costs.
Intrinsically connected to the Transparency in Coverage Rule, the No Surprises Act has been a high-priority and bipartisan issue for decades. It is intended to address three scenarios where a participant receives a large medical bill through no fault of their own:
By not holding plan participants liable under these scenarios, employees—and employers in most cases—are protected from unforeseeable or unavoidable medical costs.
How big a deal is this? Simply put, pretty big. Consider these statistics: