GROUNDWATER r e f l e c t i o n s
How to update your Employee Benefit plan Compliance in the 21st century You just finished renewing your health insurance for the 2017 plan year. Communicating the new costs and benefits to the employees, processing the renewal paperwork, updating the employee files and changing the payroll deductions was a lot of work. Now is a good time to assess whether your current health and welfare plan is in compliance with the State and Federal laws that seem to be constantly changing under the Affordable Care Act. Compliance has become increasingly important for employers as the level of enforcement and audits by the DOL, IRS and EEOC has significantly increased. Financial penalties for failing to comply with reporting and notice requirements can be costly. For example, penalties of up to $1,000 per day may be assessed against plan administrators who fail to comply with annual reporting. Compliance questions you should consider: • You are a small company. What laws and regulations apply to you and what are the corresponding notices that are required to be distributed to your employees? • Do you have a process in place for keeping track of legal updates to help ensure your notices are up to date? • Do you have a process for tracking the distribution of the notices to your employees? • How effective and efficient are your current processes for communicating, distributing and tracking the required notices provided to your field employees? In Spanish too?
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