By Wendy Delgado-King, project manager on the client experience team for ADP’s Health Care Reform team
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that certain employers provide timely, affordable healthcare coverage that meets minimum essential coverage and minimum value requirements to full-time employees and their dependents. Many organizations have found that having the right partner helps to identify anomalies in their data throughout the year, which allows them to pivot based on trends and issues.
As the adage goes, change is inevitable. That is an understatement when we look at the workplace and workforce over the past several years.
Today’s workers desire work that is personal — work that makes them feel connected to something meaningful. Hybrid work, remote work, the labor market, economic events, and shifts in employee expectations are driving more personalized work experiences. This is a profound paradigm shift from the traditional workforce dynamics we once knew. To keep up with the pace of this evolution, data and insights are imperative to drive business outcomes, and this includes ACA insights.
As you focus on Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Forms (1095-C Forms), you may ask yourself, how can I further utilize my work? In order to understand how to evaluate, calculate and identify benefit offer eligibility effectively, you’ll need to pull from many resources. A trusted ACA partner could put you ahead of the curve, helping you to proactively comply with the ACA employer-shared responsibility provisions. These provisions mandate that employers provide timely, affordable healthcare coverage that meets minimum essential coverage and minimum value requirements to eligible full-time employees and their dependents.
The value of an ACA partner
Working with a service provider that connects monthly with assigned associates to review ACA eligibility status could help you to understand where turnover is happening, allowing your organization to adjust accordingly. An assigned associate would be laser-focused on the ins and outs of your business practices and could proactively help you identify anomalies or occurrences that place your organization at risk as they arise. This is a process that should happen throughout the year, and it would allow your organization to pivot based on any identified trends or issues.
Thorough reviews are very helpful and can highlight different issues such as shifts in employee status from temporary, part-time or full-time. Observing where the shifts are might indicate changes in an environment or location and would point out opportunities for additional research.
As you investigate these trends, ask yourself:
- Have workforce dynamics fueled a change in HR employee statuses? If so, how are you tracking and updating data with these changes?
- Are employees working remotely and if so, how does that impact state and federal ACA reporting?
- How do you streamline your ACA data, make informed decisions and utilize best practices?
- How will you remain compliant with ACA regulations, and do you have the proper support?
Complex insights drive outcomes
Your organization has complex data, and your role may be to focus on business and employees, ensure benefits are administered and so much more. Adding in the complexities of the changing world of work, the answers to your questions may not be obvious. Having a dedicated partner would mean that the “problematic and complicated process” of ACA and yearly reporting could be virtually seamless.
While you may have support, knowing that you can rely on the data and the insights is only part of the puzzle. Using the insights to drive desired outcomes is the critical piece. Making work more personal for your employees means that you are more attentive to the data regarding their HR statuses, payroll changes and benefit elections, which allows you to be more adaptive in your business strategy.
The changing dynamics within the world of work are driving a more personalized experience. Employers are looking to use solutions and partnerships that can help their organizations meet workforce demands while remaining compliant. Understand that change is inevitable, and when you collect all the data points, you are better equipped to support business decisions and drive your desired outcomes.
Learn more
This ACA penalty calculator can help you learn how to proactively avoid penalties.
This article originally appeared on SPARK powered by ADP.
