Health care compliance concept "Which compliance topics do you watch most closely and how do you communicate these changes to your clients? What tools and resources do you use to keep up?"

Covering all bases

In my role as senior compliance consultant, I am watching for benefit news daily. I rely on information from the Employer Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC), BenefitsPRO, BenefitsLink, EBIA weekly and the International Foundation on Employee Benefit Plans.

I have regularly participated in ECFC advocacy trips to Capitol Hill to meet directly with members of Congress in an effort to explain why tax-advantaged accounts like FSAs, HRAs and HSAs are so important to working Americans and the clients we serve. Expanding HRAs in 2020 and eliminating the Cadillac tax will help employers continue to offer these tax advantaged options to their employees to help them afford medical care.

Our company communicates important benefit plan news to our clients and broker partners through bulletins, webinars, social media, our compliance blog and news center.

We also provide a biweekly speed-read email to our broker partners. New information that impacts employee benefit plan administration is analyzed and passed along to our employer clients and broker partners very quickly, as we are relied upon as a compliance leader in the industry.

Susan Sieger, senior compliance consultant, Employee Benefits Corporation

Compliance sleuth

I constantly monitor federal and state changes to the employee benefits world through a number of avenues. I love to listen to hearings (I just spent an hour and 46 minutes on the Texas vs. United States hearing) looking for clues, additional questions and insights to where the courts are headed. I watch the federal register, review blogs and read online news articles. In fact, I read at least 20 different feeds every morning.

In addition to the research part of the compliance job, I also take questions from all of our clients and sales folks. This keeps me on my toes and researching what is happening in the "real world," not just in the regulatory world. This is my favorite part of the job! Listening to our customers' issues, and learning how they are dealing with regulations and laws and communicating that to their employees is really exciting.

Misty Baker, director of compliance & government affairs, BenefitMall

Insights to application

In my role, I have to keep up with all topics related to health plan compliance. Like everyone else, I have been closely watching the Senate's vote to fully repeal the Cadillac tax. I'm also watching for rules expanding the use of HDHPs, electronic disclosure rules, the appeal of the district court's ruling on the ACA and the expanded HRA rules.

I work with benefits consultants and account managers, so I try to provide practical applications. In other words, as soon as anything happens, there's a ton of great information flooding your inbox and LinkedIn. But information doesn't always translate to application. So, I like to communicate how this stuff actually works in real life for an employer. There are so many excellent resources, including public blogs/info that the national brokerages and law firms push out almost immediately. But the main ones include NAHU, EBIA, Health Affairs Blog, BenefitsLink and the departments' websites themselves.

Sarah Borders, principal consultant, Benefits Compliance Solutions, Inc.

A step ahead of the IRS

We are continually asked about the IRS Letter 226J, which threatens huge fines for improperly filed 1094 & 1095-Cs. Often, the companies have complied with the employer mandate and offered coverage to every benefit eligible employee, but had their payroll company or accountant prepare the filings incorrectly.

While the IRS will take employers money, they really want data. So if you get an IRS Letter 226-J, do not ignore it. Reach out to your broker partner, and ask for a referral to a TPA that specializes in IRS Letter 226-J responses.

Benjamin Davis, vice president, Diversified Administration, Inc.

Some topics never change

My two big topics are health care and student debt relief. Student debt is a fairly new benefit and watching how the IRS is going to encourage more employers to buy in will be very interesting.

Health care is always a topic of compliance because despite all the chatter, some basics of ACA have not changed. It will be interesting to see over the next year or two how some of those in power will change how the IRS monitors health care without a mandate.

For me, the best places to start (outside of BenefitsPRO) are the daily newsletters from STAT, Washington Post, and Kaiser Health News.

Tara Nichol, founder, Medical Billing Advocacy Group

Building in-flight

Here in Massachusetts, one of the items on the forefront is the Massachusetts Paid Family Medical Leave Act. We have been paying close attention to that, along with other paid leave legislation that is popping up in Connecticut and Maine. We have been fielding a ton of questions on this with no real clear direction from the state. I have often compared it to building a plane in-flight. They have put just enough thought into it to get it off the ground but have no real vision on how to land it. They have provided an opt-out provision but there are no plans in the marketplace yet that meet the state's criteria.

The two resources I go to most often are Zywave's Broker Briefcase and a local attorney who specializes in regulatory and compliance matters relating to employee benefit plans.

Steve Corbin, account executive/employee benefits manager, The Dowd Agencies, LLC

Honing HIPAA

An issue that we are focusing on right now is HIPAA compliance for employers with a self-funded group health benefit. Recently there have been more HIPAA fines assessed in connection with employer HIPAA breaches. Any time an employer has a self-funded benefit plan, it becomes a covered entity under HIPAA, which requires it to have a number of written documents in place, tailored to its operations and data security, specifying how it will safeguard protected health information belonging to the plan participants.

The main way we communicate to clients is through our monthly compliance webinars that are conducted by our ERISA attorney. We also conduct face-to-face compliance meetings with clients at least once a year and go through a full compliance audit with them. When there are changes in legislation, we email an alert and also post it on social media.

Valerie Stremsterfer, president, Intrepid Benefits

Revised regs, revised strategies

I tend to focus my attention on compliance areas that are targeted for revision by a given administration or legislative body. At the federal level, I have been most interested in tracking the ongoing congressional conversation regarding pricing transparency on a variety of health care fronts, surprise balance billing, and the repeal of the Cadillac tax.

Additionally, the Trump administration has been active in issuing regulatory guidance that could potentially cause meaningful shifts in the strategies we need to present to clients. The Administration's new rule that will allow employers to establish individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements (ICHRAs) is a great example of recent regulatory action that could have a notable impact on strategies.

Consultations tailored to a client's specific circumstances can reduce confusion. Following up a compliance consultation with an email outlining what was covered is an important step to ensure the client understood and has a clear understanding of the path forward.

Scott Wham, director of compliance services, Kistler Tiffany Benefits

Managing the message

Arrow Benefits Group is in the "employee management business" – we analyze, prioritize and customize all aspects of the employee experience, from pre to post engagement. This means we help navigate the "seven C's" of employee relationships – compliance, communications, compensation, culture, coverage, community and compassionate response to the emerging, varied and continuing diverse needs of the company population.

The first challenge, and the one that employers wish to avoid considering, is compliance, but without proper attention paid it is not possible to move forward. Going further, we encourage employers to embrace the demands placed upon them by the many layers of governmental authority–municipal, state and federal–and celebrate them in the spirit of providing employee protection and safety.

While the material is dry, we do try to spice it up a bit with some alliterative prose, humor, and the creation of the broader context within which it is all meant to operate. We are careful to walk the line that does not delve into political territory, but that is not always so easy. Instead, we paint a broader picture of the atmosphere behind the changes and then show clients how to work that within their culture using communications and conversation. After all, being in the business of employee management also means managing the message, managing to smile through the frustrations, and managing, most of all, to make employees appreciate the relationship they have with management and the safety and protection provided them.

Jordan Shields, Arrow Benefits Group

True partnership

Today, the issues we most closely keep an eye on are those with an uncertain future. We also keep an eye on federal and state specific regulations that may not be directly related to benefits but to HR, which we by default have a hand in. An example of this would be the new laws in Illinois regarding sexual harassment and harassment in the workplace. We have taken an active role in assisting our clients, specifically those in the public sector, with making sure they are in compliance with these changing requirements. In regards to all else it's soldier on as usual. We must keep a thoughtful eye on all.

Although this has been a challenge, I have found that the best way to manage it is through diligence and organization. At our agency, we rely on a combination of contracted compliance professionals, including those in the area of HR and legal, as well as reputable online compliance tools, such as Zywave. We have found that putting a fluid annual compliance list together that includes a timeline of deadlines, etc., helps us internally stay on top of it. In terms of how we communicate compliance needs to our clients, this depends on the particular compliance issue at hand and the client. Many mandatory compliance matters are taken care of as standard practice via our open enrollment materials and outsourcing of things such as COBRA. For others, a timely mass email with a description and instructions are provided to impacted clients.

With some, we find this isn't enough and compliance assistance needs to be made even more personal, specifically in regards to reporting and paying of fees. This is were a service-focused, client-specific overall philosophy comes into place. While you try to structure a compliance game plan as much as possible, sometimes it needs to be personalized for your client or the complexity of the issue at hand. Has this added extra time and work for us? You bet! However, it has also allowed us to be true partners to our clients and that is worth every headache.

Courtney Calabrese, benefits advisor, Corkill Insurance

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Keeping up on compliance issues

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