Most companies have stuck it out by handling ACA requirements in-house or with an existing vendor. Make this the year you eliminate the heavy lifting by your HR team, further reduce the chance of increases in penalty risks and move to an end-to-end ACA vendor. Switching vendors doesn’t have to be a months-long process and there’s plenty of time to do it before the next ACA filing season. Not sure how to get started? Let’s start by finding out why you should entertain a switch.
ACA reporting takes too much time away from our HR priorities.
Complying properly with ACA reporting takes hours of effort every month plus an extra sprint at the beginning of the year to review 1095-C forms prior to distribution and filing with the IRS. It’s exhausting just thinking about it, right?
One solution is to outsource the majority of ACA reporting and recoup the time spent pulling reports, understanding the law and managing deadlines.
Our current vendor is okay, but we know it could be better and easier.
Through a short series of questions, you can determine quickly if your current ACA vendor is supporting you. It comes down to accuracy, data sources, services beyond calculations, ease of implementation (or re-implement as data systems change), their reputation, and expanding services as the law changes (such as state individual mandates).
But, if you have a feeling that things should be easier, then looking into other options is not only a smart idea, but it could also save you time and money.
With more employees qualifying for a Premium Tax Credit, we’re worried about penalties.
With the extension of Premium Tax Credits through 2025, more people qualify for subsidies.
That’s good news for the exchanges but bad news for employers who do not offer affordable coverage to all full-time employees. If you miss offering affordable coverage to a full-time employee who receives a Premium Tax Credit, the IRS will assess a penalty. It is even more important to get the calculations correct and only report truly full time employees to the IRS.
We're unsure if we’re paying too much or too little for what we’re getting.
Though HRIS and payroll systems have increasingly included ACA tracking as a part of their standard offering, it’s a good thing to ask what support is included.
- Most HRIS/Payroll ACA solutions include measurement reports, tracking of enrollment, those who waive benefits and affordability calculations. However, they leave it up to you to review for data inaccuracies, correct 1095-C code combinations, distribution and filing of forms, and state mandate filings.
- HRIS/Payroll systems were built for paying employees and enrolling them in benefits – not ACA compliance. While the data gets the job done for running your business, they create critical areas of risk from misreported Hours of Service, inappropriate employment statuses, inaccurate SSN rigor, missing Leave of Absence data, and incomplete data. For example, if your COBRA is handled by a third-party and not tracked within your HRIS/Payroll system, it’s impossible to guarantee your 1095-Cs will be accurate to the letter of the law.
- Your HR team must be the ACA expert. While your HRIS/Payroll provider may assign you a competent Account Manager, they typically are HR generalists that have little experience or practical knowledge around the ACA. This requires you to keep up with the law, know what to look for to stay compliant and keep track of all the deadlines each year.
State individual mandates aren’t supported, and we’re tired of doing it manually.
To date, California, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont have passed state individual mandates. With each state passing its own individual mandate, the difficulty level for reporting compliance has increased and not all ACA vendors or HRIS/Payroll systems are helping their clients comply. This means companies will not only have to be ACA complaint at the federal level, but also at the individual state levels. Monitoring all these moving parts takes time away from other critical tasks.
Printing and mailing our own forms takes too much time and money.
It’s expected that HR produces materials around benefit offerings and corporate policies. But tax forms as well? Not only does it take time to print and mail forms, but it can also be costly with paper costs and postage. Moving to a robust and secure electronic secure online platform can eliminate phone calls from employees who can’t find their form. And with Single Sign On you can also increase the ease of access.
We can help!
Please contact us if you’ve been managing ACA reporting on your own and need help or are not satisfied with the results you’ve had with your current vendor. We offer an end-to-end ACA reporting solution focused on identifying issues early for more accurate results.
The information provided does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information and content herein is provided for general informational purposes only and may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information.
