Watching for Issues Business alerts can also be helpful with new employees, helping you track the number of days from hire to the offer of healthcare insurance, as well as whether or not the employee waives coverage. “Additionally, if the new hire or a current employee decides to visit the healthcare exchange on their own and qualifies for a subsidy, the employer will get a notice that their employee has qualified and will have to pay a penalty to subsidize that payment,” says Bruce. “Now more than ever, it’s vital to keep good employee records of hire dates and time records. Again, this only applies to organizations that have 50 or more employees over a certain period of time.” Additionally, if the provision of healthcare will be a new thing to your firm, you’re likely to feel a little overwhelmed by all the new details. “One way to help out with the overwhelmed feeling is to use deduction values combined with the vendor expenses and create a KPI on your dashboard,” says Shawn. “Comparing and analyzing that information will help keep you informed with real-time data, enabling you to make decisions and maybe even predict when your company will change status. It’s difficult, but not impossible.”
Looking at the Implementation The deadline for the ACA’s implementation is a little, shall we say, fluid. “As I prepared slides for GPUG Summit 2013, I had to change all the slides by one year as previously the penalties would have gone into effect in 2014, but will now be in effect in 2015,” says Bruce. “It’s going to take some time to implement these systems, even for an
organization that has around 50 or 60 employees, so I recommend that employers assume that compliance should happen in 2014 even if they won’t be fined for a year. This will give you time to get accustomed to the reporting and tracking as well as learning whether or not the plan you choose meets all eligibility requirements.” When you start your tracking in Microsoft Dynamics GP, be sure to look for glitches and update your HRP module whenever afforded the opportunity. “Be sure to leverage the community by visiting Microsoft Connect and posting suggestions or bugs so the Microsoft team can quickly respond,” says Shawn. “In addition to that, be sure to plan ahead and begin shopping for rates early!” GPUG Bruce, Shawn, and Terry have provided a list for learning more about the ACA and its impact on your organization: » Microsoft Dynamics team blog: http://tinyurl.com/ob553qa » Your healthcare benefits provider (they’re in the same boat as you – if your plan doesn’t comply, you’ll shop elsewhere) » A law firm that specializes in labor law issues (expect to pay at least $500 for a plan review…which is a small price to pay if you’re non-compliant) » Your Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner » Upcoming GPUG webinars » Fellow Users and SMEs on GPUG Collaborate » And finally, the ACA document itself…all 2,300+ pages
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