The Benefit Company, Inc., Announces New Benefitfirst(TM) Capabilities to Help Employers Comply with Healthcare Reform

Columbia, SC (PRWEB) October 01, 2013

New calculations, new reports, new employee notifications ... complying with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) means a heavier administrative load for employers. It also puts a premium on accurate, dependable data. The Benefit Company, Inc. (http://www.thebenefitcompany.com) – an established life, accident and health brokerage agency and owner of the proprietary Benefitfirst™ benefits management solution – is offering new data and reporting capabilities specifically designed to help clients meet PPACA’s employer requirements.

Three of these requirements are (1) reporting both the employer and employee cost of health coverage on Forms W-2, (2) reporting on and paying the PCORI fees for self-insured plans based on the number of covered lives – the first of which was due July 31, and (3) the employer mandate to offer affordable coverage that meets minimum value standards if the employer has 50 or more full-time or full-time-equivalent employees.

Clients of the Benefitfirst benefits management solution have new capabilities to help them meet these requirements.

   •  W-2 reporting: Allows clients to generate a Benefit Premium Report showing employer and employee cost of health coverage quickly and easily. The client can then click "Export to Excel" to simplify the process of including the totals on their employees' W-2 forms.
   •  PCORI reporting: Allows clients with self-funded plans to generate a report showing the number of employees and dependents by benefit plan for calculating the fees and reporting to the IRS.
   •  Employer mandate: Allows clients to easily track and report on benefit declinations by employees to help the employer avoid any penalties. Beginning in 2015 (delayed from 2014), if an employee receives a subsidy through the government healthcare exchanges, the employer may have to pay a substantial penalty without proof that the employee was offered and declined affordable health coverage.

Ready for Pending Requirements

These new Benefitfirst capabilities and other system upgrades will also support the delayed (and most likely simplified) employee-specific reporting requirements, as well as other elements of PPACA as they become effective, including:

   •  Code section 6055, which requires insurers and self-funded employer plan sponsors to report to the IRS and plan participants whether plan coverage offers minimum essential health coverage.
   •  Code section 6056, which requires employers of 50 or more employees to report to the IRS and plan participants specific information regarding its employer-sponsored coverage and the employees who are covered.
   •  Support for electronic posting of employee notice on public healthcare exchanges beginning October 1 of this year.
   •  Automatic enrollment (companies with 200+ full-time employees required to auto-enroll employees in their medical plans) based on client and government rules once final guidelines are released.

"The main goal of our Benefitfirst solution is to ensure accuracy, control costs and increase efficiencies in benefits administration," says Steve Lunceford, president of The Benefit Company, Inc. “Because Benefitfirst technology is proprietary, we can easily update it to support the new employer requirements under PPACA as they are implemented.”

Easy-to-Find Link on Benefitfirst™ Homepage

To make it easier for clients to find what they need to generate newly required PPACA reports, each client’s custom Benefitfirst website now has a link titled “ACA Reports” on the homepage. With just a few keystrokes, clients can generate the reports they need, including employer and employee costs for any benefit enrolled or managed through Benefitfirst and for any timeframe.

Lunceford recommends that employers consult with their legal, tax and/or benefits advisor to ensure compliance with the ever-changing requirements under PPACA. For more information about Benefitfirst’s capabilities and healthcare reform requirements, see your benefits advisor or contact us at 803.726.9735 or busdev(at)benefitfirst(dot)com.

About The Benefit Company, Inc.

The Benefit Company, Inc., is a full-service employee benefits consulting agency based in Columbia, S.C., with a proprietary and unique benefits management solution – Benefitfirst™ – designed for and available exclusively to its clients and its certified benefits partners’ clients. Benefitfirst is a robust benefits enrollment and management solution that audits, manages and transmits eligibility for more than 2,500 clients to hundreds of carriers each year for clients with employees in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. It combines technology, client services and personalized support to automate and support an employer’s entire employee benefits cycle.

Founded in 1991, The Benefit Company offers consulting services and solutions that go well beyond plan design and rate changes. It provides detailed data analytics and cost projections of healthcare plans combined with highly actionable solutions and measurable results to reduce overall benefit costs and improve accuracy and productivity. For more information, call (803) 750-5781 or visit thebenefitcompany.com.

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