Your “Other” New Year’s Resolutions (for Your Benefit Plans)

January 16, 2018

And hopefully you’ll keep these! While many of us may have already given up on our New Year’s resolutions, there’s still time to take some positive steps with your benefit plans. Below are some suggested items that you can take care of early this year to set your benefits plans up for a smooth 2018.

• Review Billing and Payroll.  We mentioned previously that you should check your payroll feeds to make sure the deductions match up with participant elections. It’s likewise important to review your bills for appropriate coverage levels – especially for the programs that require evidence of insurability or medical underwriting, such as supplemental life insurance or disability insurance.   You should also confirm with the carrier that any appropriate evidences of insurability or medical underwriting forms have been obtained. Catching mistakes now can save you headaches down the road.
• Review Plan Documents and Employee Communications. It’s always a good time for a plan documentation check-up.  Do you have copies of all your insurance contracts?  Do all your plans that require summary plan descriptions (SPDs) have them?  Are all changes to your plans reflected in the plan documents and employee communications?  If not, you should get those up-to-date.
• Don’t Let COBRA Bite You. Newly enrolled participants and beneficiaries need to receive a general notice of COBRA rights within 90 days of becoming enrolled.  If you have employees (or spouses or dependents) who are participating for the first time, be sure they receive the general COBRA notice and that it is mailed to the appropriate address.  You may also want to audit your COBRA vendor and communication with that vendor.  This will help ensure that the vendor is sending the proper notices (like election notices) on a timely basis.  You should also check to make sure that the vendor is receiving timely information from you, such as when new employees or dependents join the plan and when employees terminate employment.
• Change in Status Reminders. For calendar year plans, now that the new (plan) year has started, it’s a good idea to remind employees of change in status events, like marriage, births of new children, and the like.  These are the events that allow employees to change their benefit elections.  Some are required by law, others are permitted, but must be reflected in the terms of your plan. The notice should let employees know what events permit an election change and the timeframes and other procedures for making the election change.  HUB International can provide you with a sample Special Enrollment Rights Notice that describes the changes in status group health plans are legally-required to offer.
• Calendar Your Deadlines. From distributing participant notices, to filing Forms 5500, managing benefit plans can come with a variety of deadlines.  We suggest putting them all on your work calendar (and maybe some reminders weeks or months in advance for those items that require work from you) to make sure that they all get done.  HUB International has compliance calendars that can assist with identifying some of these deadlines.
• Prove You Didn’t Discriminate. This is more of a backward-looking item, but some benefits are subject to discrimination testing rules.  These rules are designed to demonstrate that you provided benefits to a broad cross-section of your workforce and not just highly-compensated or high-ranking employees.  The following benefits have various nondiscrimination testing requirements:
  • Cafeteria plans (i.e. Section 125)
  • Health flexible spending accounts
  • Dependent care spending accounts
  • Self-funded health plans (including health reimbursement arrangements)
  • Health savings accounts (but only if employer contributions are made outside the cafeteria plan)
• Put Last Year Behind You (Or At Least in Your Files).  You may have made a resolution to organize your desk or your office.  That’s great! In doing so, though, don’t be too quick to throw away (or delete) files related to your benefit plans.  Be sure to keep copies of relevant plan materials in your files, such as:
  • open enrollment communications
  • insurance contracts, plan documents
  • rate sheets
  • proof that employees received their materials, like sign-in sheets for meetings or a copy of the email you used to send materials
  • proof of elections, like election forms or a spreadsheet from your enrollment vendor
  • waiver forms, if you requested those

You may need items like this later on to prove that you told employees about the plans that were available to them, to prove that you made an offer of coverage, if you’re subject to the ACA employer mandate, or for another purpose.  Check out HUB’s Fiduciary File document that provides you with examples of documents that you should retain and provides a suggested filing structure. Remember that your HUB Account Manager remains available to assist you with any questions you may have regarding your plan operations and compliance obligations. 

View more compliance articles in our Compliance Directory. 

NOTICE OF DISCLAIMER
The information herein is intended to be educational only and is based on information that is generally available. HUB International makes no representation or warranty as to its accuracy and is not obligated to update the information should it change in the future. The information is not intended to be legal or tax advice. Consult your attorney and/or professional advisor as to your organization’s specific circumstances and legal, tax or other requirements.