The Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced reporting requirements outlined in Code Section 6056. These regulations mandate that large employers furnish information to the IRS and their full-time employees regarding the provision of health plan coverage to their full-time staff members. This data is reported using Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. Large employers should already be well-acquainted with the 1095-C form and should have an established filing process with the IRS.
Types of Providers
Typically, employers utilize one of three provider types for ACA reporting:
- Specialty providers, including accounting firms,
- Payroll companies, and
- Benefits administration solutions.
What to Know
To ensure an effective solution, it should be both accurate and straightforward. Key considerations include:
- How to determine full-time employees accurately?
- Proper documentation of coverage offers.
- Ability to report whether affordable coverage offers were made.
- Assistance provided for coding the forms.
- Support in identifying potential issues.
- Availability of single sign-on integration with the IRS.
- Ability to submit reporting electronically to the IRS.
Self-funded Health Plans Raise the Stakes
Affordable Care Act reporting becomes notably more complex when a company maintains a self-funded medical insurance plan. Self-funded employers have additional reporting obligations compared to fully insured counterparts, as they must report covered employees and dependents monthly.
Minimum Needs
A comprehensive ACA reporting system should:
- Identify and report full-time employees.
- Document offers of coverage.
- Determine the affordability of each coverage offer.
- Track and report covered employees and dependents monthly.
You’ll Also Want
The most effective solutions should also offer:
- Resilience in the face of changes in medical insurance providers, ensuring minimal disruption to human resources departments.
- Adaptability to personnel changes in human resources departments, facilitating a smooth transition to another team member.
- Early identification of issues, such as fine exposure and coding discrepancies before forms are distributed and filed.
- Ability to produce and distribute required forms to the employees and the IRS.
The Steele Solution
Steele customers utilize the ACA Reporting Module within the BenSelect software system to generate and submit ACA reports. Within our system, employees are categorized as full-time or part-time, offers of coverage are made and documented, and covered individuals are tracked monthly. Our solution can seamlessly adapt to changes in your medical insurance provider without disrupting your ACA processes. The software analyzes affordability methods to assess the affordability of coverage offers, automatically codes the forms, and provides a summary that highlights potential coding mismatches and warns of issues and fine exposure before form distribution. The solution is user-friendly and can be executed by your HR department with minimal training. Additionally, we offer single sign-on integration with the IRS for added convenience.