It's no secret that the IRS is sending out its 226-J letter to companies across America, warning that they face financial penalties for not adhering to federal ACA employer requirements. Rather than meekly accepting the coming financial hit, or worse yet, ignoring the letter altogether (yes, some organizations do that), there's a little-known tactic that employers can use that could save millions of dollars in proposed penalties: Talk to one another!

In today's corporate America, it's not unusual for cross-departmental communication to take a back seat to the streamlined efficiencies of siloed work processes. That structure, however, comes with risks. In fact, we've had organizations come to us after working with other outside resources and wound up paying as much as $1 million in unwarranted ACA noncompliance fines—because of poor internal communication.