5 actions to take now to prepare for ACA reporting
November 10, 2015 9:17 AM
As the first Affordable Care Act reporting deadline quickly approaches, the maximum fine of $1.5 million for failing to accurately report employer-sponsored health care coverage in a timely manner is top of mind. Jeff Cohen, president of CIC Plus, a vendor of employer compliance management systems for HR, payroll and benefits, offers five steps companies should take now to prepare.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
[Image credit: Fotolia]
1. Review the requirements
The IRS issued drafts of the 2015 forms that will be used to report health care coverage, which enable companies to better understand the specific reporting requirements. The updated forms include space devoted to detailing covered individuals to avoid the use of multiple 1095-C forms for larger families. Be sure to pay close attention to the employee and health care information that is required, says Cohen.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
[Image credit: Fotolia]
2. Identify your ACA fulfillment team
For many companies, its confusing who leads the ACA reporting team: benefits, payroll or HR? Since all departments play a vital role in the process, consider setting up a multi-functional team, Cohen says.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
[Image credit: Fotolia]
3. Gather data
Cohen says careful coordination across all departments is necessary to pull the needed employee coverage information in a timely manner. Some of the information employers need to provide includes:
tHow many full-time employees your organization employs each month.
tIdentifying information for employees (name, SSN, address).
tThe months that the employee was offered health care coverage.
tThe employees share of the lowest cost monthly premium for self-only minimum value coverage.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
tHow many full-time employees your organization employs each month.
tIdentifying information for employees (name, SSN, address).
tThe months that the employee was offered health care coverage.
tThe employees share of the lowest cost monthly premium for self-only minimum value coverage.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
4. Prep the data
Do you have the right Social Security numbers for your employees and their dependents? Assign resources to ensure you have this information. Also, consider your data common denominator, Cohen says. If you have data coming from multiple systems, you'll need to join this data together.
Another suggestion, he adds, is to make sure any unique IDs assigned to one employee in one system is not assigned to a different employee in another system. Unique IDs need to be truly unique, otherwise you could have a huge mess, and risk a security breach, he says.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
Another suggestion, he adds, is to make sure any unique IDs assigned to one employee in one system is not assigned to a different employee in another system. Unique IDs need to be truly unique, otherwise you could have a huge mess, and risk a security breach, he says.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
5. Track monthly health care coverage information
Dont wait until December to collect all of the necessary monthly employee and health care information. Identify your full-time employees for each month and their health care coverage details now so you will have time to verify the information and make any necessary corrections before the filing period.
[Image credit: Fotolia]
[Image credit: Fotolia]
