1. Taking Advantage Of The Pre-planning Phase

Begin by clarifying your business’s objectives. You can then evaluate benefit plan designs. Whether it’s health savings accounts, consumer-directed plans, reimbursement accounts, or so forth, the important point is to determine what options best fit your business’s goals and employee pool.

Other considerations during the pre-planning period should include your budget for benefit administration costs, what and how technology will be utilized to make the enrollment process as efficient as possible, and whether the administration of benefits will be outsourced or done within your business.

2. Developing And Fine-tuning A Project Plan

Your project plan should be clearly defined and stipulate the following elements:

* The dates for the enrollment period.

* What resources are at your disposal and how they are to be allocated.

* A checklist of all tasks.

* How much lead-time will be needed for the addition of new employees and, if applicable, changing vendors or carriers.

* The training schedule for customer service reps and benefit staff members.

Additionally, it’s always prudent to have a contingency plan in place and to directly oversee the development of the project plan at each stage.

3. Educating Employees On Maximizing Benefits

A 2010 MetLife Employee Benefits Trend Study showed that employees remain extremely interested in communications with their employers regarding financial advice, retirement planning, and other benefit options. In fact, the overwhelming percentage of employees feel that communication has become a very important piece of the enrollment process.

Employers should provide their employees with the education they need to make wise health care decisions and the tools necessary for them to successfully navigate the health care system. There are a number of ways you can accomplish these goals, such as benefit calculators, health and wellness fairs, in-service meetings, direct mail benefit information, and online benefit tools.

It’s also important for employers to communicate the overall value of offered benefits to employees. Your employees should be informed about trends in the insurance industry, whenever you add more value to their health care plan, and how much you are contributing for the offered benefits.

4. Foresee The Tasks To Follow Open Enrollment

Employers should foresee and properly plan for the tasks that will need to be accomplished during the post-enrollment period. If not properly planned for, these tasks can create just as many problems as those that need to be done before and during the open enrollment period. Make sure to address the following points:

* ID card distribution

* payroll (payroll feed schedule, timing of the last payroll period, and payroll deduction automation)

* quarterly audit schedule with the carrier

* follow-ups on carrier inaccuracies

* starting a plan for the next year

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform) limited the ability of health plans to cover over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, permitting reimbursement from flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health reimbursement accounts (HRAs) beginning January 1, 2011, only when OTC drugs are purchased with a prescription. In a departure from guidance issued last fall, the Internal Revenue Service has announced that debit cards linked to FSAs and HRAs can continue to be used to pay for prescribed OTC drugs, so long as certain procedures are followed.

These procedures are set out in IRS Notice 2011-5. According to this guidance, after January 15, 2011, FSA and HRA debit cards may continue to be used to purchase OTC medicines or drugs at drug stores and pharmacies, at non-health care merchants that have pharmacies (such as grocery stores with a pharmacy), and at mail-order and Web-based vendors that sell prescription drugs, so long as all of the following conditions are met:

1. Prior to purchase-

a. the prescription for the OTC medicine or drug is presented (in any format) to the pharmacist,

b. the OTC medicine or drug is dispensed by the pharmacist in accordance with applicable law and regulations pertaining to the practice of the pharmacy, and

c. an Rx number is assigned.

2. The pharmacy or other vendor retains a record of the Rx number, the name of the purchaser (or the name of the person for whom the prescription applies) and the date and amount of the purchase in a manner that meets IRS recordkeeping requirements.

3. All of these records are available to the employer or its agent upon request.

4. The debit card system will not accept a charge for an OTC medicine or drug unless an Rx number has been assigned.

5. All other requirements for use of debit cards associated with health plans are followed.

So long as the above procedures are followed, the debit card transaction will be considered fully substantiated at the time and point of sale.

OTC drug purchases made at other vendors that have health-care-related merchant codes (such as hospitals and physicians), and purchases made at “90% pharmacies” (pharmacies for which 90% or more of gross receipts in the prior taxable year were for tax-code-qualified medical expenses), are permitted under a less stringent set of requirements.

Importantly, for other merchants that sell OTC drugs, but which are not covered in the notice (such as a grocery store or convenience store without a pharmacy), an FSA or HRA debit card cannot be used to purchase OTC drugs. Employees need to be aware of this limitation, as well as of the conditions that now must be met to use debit cards for any OTC medication purchases, to ensure that health plan-related debit cards are used properly.

All successful companies face the challenge of attracting and retaining the best employees. Even in an economy with widespread workforce reductions and a job market that favors employers, salary freezes, bonus eliminations and benefits cutbacks make it more difficult to motivate employees and maintain their loyalty. Though disgruntled employees may stay on board for as long as tough economic times persist, when conditions improve they’ll begin to get their resumes in order and explore other opportunities. That’s one reason why it’s important to maintain a competitive benefits package, even during times when employees aren’t actively looking for new employment.

However, with employers feeling the economic pinch as much as employees, funding a comprehensive benefits program might not be within all companies’ budgets. When the economy forces benefits cutbacks, voluntary benefits can play an important role in filling gaps and helping a company maintain competitive benefits offerings.

Suppose, for example, rising health plan costs force you to choose between allocating limited benefits budget dollars to the health and dental plans along with a significant cost increase to employees, or directing all of these dollars to the health plan and eliminating the dental plan. A voluntary benefits program gives you another option: Continuing to offer employees access to a dental plan, but on a voluntary basis. Employees will pay the full premium, but at a discounted rate since the plan is offered on a group basis. They also have the convenience of payroll deduction, and the option to pay premiums pre-tax, a money-saving measure that would not be available to them if they’d had to purchase the coverage on their own. The group pricing and tax-savings potential give employees access to benefits coverage that they otherwise may not have been able to afford.

Whether the pre-tax savings opportunity is available will depend on the type of voluntary benefit-for example, while dental, vision and supplemental medical premiums can be paid for with pre-tax dollars, certain types of life insurance and products like group auto insurance, group homeowners insurance and group legal cannot. But even when pre-tax payment is not available, employees will likely gain substantial savings from the discounts of group purchasing.

Along with the types of benefits mentioned above-dental, vision and supplemental medical, and group auto insurance, group homeowner’s insurance and group legal-common voluntary benefits offerings include supplemental life insurance, disability insurance, and financial planning.

In addition to filling gaps in coverage, voluntary benefits also are a great way to be responsive to the varying needs of today’s diverse workforce, and enable your company to offer employees access to an array of benefits that few employers would be able to finance on their own.

Since it’s important to offer voluntary benefits that are most likely to be well-received by employees, look both at what coverage gaps exist in your company’s core benefits program, and at employee demographics to determine which voluntary benefits offerings are most appropriate. Employee focus groups and employee surveys also can be useful information-gathering tools in selecting the voluntary benefits that would be the best fit for your workplace.

Click on the Contact Us in the main menu in order to discuss how we can help you to communicate with your employees.

IRS code allows for employers to implement a pre-tax Section 125 Cafeteria Plan as an employee benefit.  This plan allows for unreimbursed insurance expenses to be paid pre-tax.  Examples include insurance premiums, doctors office co-pays, prescription co-pays, eye exams, eye glasses, contact lenses, laser eye surgery, orthodontics, and more…

Cafeteria Plan – Another Feather in Your Benefits Cap Implementing a Section 125 Cafeteria Plan will strengthen your benefits program, save your company FICA taxes, and save participating employees 25% to 40% in taxes (depending on their income tax bracket).  What other benefits can you implement that strengthen your benefits package and you can do so with little or zero out-of-pocket dollars?

If your employees are paying any portion of the monthly insurance premiums, then to save FICA taxes, implement a Premium Only Plan (POP).  A POP allows for employees to pay their portion of the group insurance premiums on a pre-tax basis and is a good start to saving taxes for you and your employees.  You will save FICA taxes while saving your employee 17% to 40% on dollars they’re already paying.

With a POP there is no real ongoing administration as you’ll use payroll to take care of the dollar flow’s.  Discrimination testing is a requirement that will need to be performed at least once at the beginning of each plan year to ensure your plan is in compliance.

To take your pre-tax 125 plan to the next level means implementing the Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA).  Generally, there are two FSA accounts including a Medical FSA (medical / dental / vision) and a Dependent / Elder Daycare FSA.

These FSA accounts will allow for the unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses to be paid on a pre-tax basis.  Examples include dependent daycare, office co-pays, prescription co-pays, eye exams, eyeglasses, contacts, orthodontics, and more.

These flexible spending accounts (FSA) are an easy way to supplement any gaps in your existing benefits program, save money for you and your employees, and is a great morale booster.

If you’re a small employer that doesn’t have a dental or vision plan because of costs.  Implementing the FSA will at least allow for your employees who have these types of out-of-pocket expenses to pay them on a pre-tax basis.  Wouldn’t it make your employees happy to be able to save 17% to 40% on a $5,000 orthodontic expense for a family member?  That would equal a $1,250 tax savings for an employee in the 25% tax bracket.

The FSA accounts are where the administration hassles of receiving claims, verifying claims as eligible expenses, answering employee questions, reimbursing claims, etc. are seen.  Which may lead you to consider outsourcing your ongoing administration through a qualified third party administrator.  If you’ve only got a few participants in the FSA in-house administration is something you can probably handle, but with monthly minimum administrative fees outsourcing is pretty economical.

Partnering with a qualified Cafeteria Plan Administrator such as BusinessPlans, Inc. will allow your employees to access their individual account information 24-hours a day, seven days a week from anywhere in the world.  As an employer, you also gain 24-hour Internet access.  You may query reports and check the status of your plan around the clock when you want and need your plan information.

Every organization has limits on the resources it has available for use.  Outsourcing will allow your company to focus and redirect its resources; most often people resources, from non-core activities to profit gaining activities.

Looking for employee communication solutions

Communicating with your employees has never been more important than it is right now.

The current economic climate is leaving many to wonder about their and your future.

Employee compensation is about a lot more than what you pay your employees.

Utilizing personalized employee benefit statements help you communicate the total value of your employee benefits program to your employees and open their eyes to their “hidden paycheck”.

Industry studies show while employers spend an average of 40% over payroll on benefits, most employees have no idea what benefits they have or how much those benefits are worth.

You’re spending thousands of dollars to provide your employees with statutory and fringe benefits – shouldn’t you be getting your money’s worth?

Be sure to checkout the benefit statement samples at myBenefitStatements.com