Uncategorized

One of the most important decisions your employees make each year is choosing which of the benefit options you offer they are going to enroll in.  These decisions can have a direct impact on their family’s finances.  With the advent of Private Exchanges, High Deductible Health Plans with an HSA or HRA, choice of dental programs, supplemental life insurance and so on, employees have a lot of important decisions to make.   The scary part is that employees spend a remarkably small amount of time researching their options.

A recent study showed that more than 40 percent of employees spent less than 15 minutes researching available benefits during the 2013 open enrollment period. About 25 percent of the people surveyed spent less than five minutes researching benefits.  In comparison, look at the survey results below to see how much time people spent on other purchases:

– 10 hours researching a new vehicle purchase.
– 4 hours shopping for a new computer.
– 5 hours planning vacations.
– 2 hours deciding which television to buy. …

Some employers have been contemplating circumventing the requirement of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate by boosting workers’ pay with tax-free dollars and sending them off to buy insurance on their own, via the federal or state-run exchanges or the private markets. The employer is essentially taking the dollars they spend now on health care, provide it on a tax-free basis to their employees and have them take charge of their own health coverage.  Under IRS Notice 2013-54, these arrangements are referred to as ’employer payment plans.’

‘No dice,’ says the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS quietly updated a frequently-asked question section on its website last month and clarified that such an arrangement would not satisfy the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act. What’s more, these plans could stick employers with an excise tax liability of $100 per day per covered employee – a total potential per-head liability of up o $36,500 peer year, (per Section 4). …