You are going to hate section 6055 and 6056 of the IRS code. Under PPACA, beginning in 2015, employers will have a lot more compliance obligations.
First, the easy stuff. Among other details, large employers will have to report to the IRS for every plan they sponsor:
- health insurance premiums or premium equivalents
- waiting periods
- whether or not the plans offer minimum essential benefits
- the percentage of the premium paid by the employer
Now the stuff that will keep you up nights. Employers must report month-by-month details on each full time employee (per the 30 hour rule) for whom minimum essential coverage was offered. In addition:
- names, addresses and taxpayer identification numbers of the plan sponsor and benefit provider
- the dates each individual was covered under minimum essential coverage
- whether coverage was offered through an exchange
If you are a large employer, you need to seriously consider your HRIS (Human Resource Information System) platform. Payroll systems may be able to provide this data, but it seems to me that if you haven’t adopted an online enrollment platform, now is the time to put this on the front burner. And maybe a request for additional HR staff.