The 2022 ACA Open Enrollment period begins in just 80 days (November 1), and there’s no better time to talk about your business’ benefits plan than while health insurance is on everyone’s mind.
IS YOUR BUSINESS ACA COMPLIANT?
The ACA has been law since 2010, but non-compliance hasn’t been consistently enforced. That has started to change. The ACA Times recently reported on signs that the IRS is stepping up its enforcement of the law, and in 2020 the agency released a memo signaling that there will be no statute of limitations on ACA violations.
2020 also marked the last year for the “Good-Faith Transition Relief” program, which allowed auditors a lot more leeway in forgiving errors. After ten years, the IRS expects businesses to know what it takes to be within the law. Plummer Insurance’s benefits team can look over your policy to be sure, and might even be able to help you save on premiums.
ARE YOU ATTRACTING THE BEST HIRES?
The last two years have shown in stark contrast just how difficult employee retention can be, let alone hiring. Generation Z – the generation younger than millennials – are starting to enter the workforce. If you want to be able to effectively replace retiring employees, both generations need appealed to – and both expect more than bare-bones benefits packages.
Employee turnover is expensive, and not just because you have to recruit and train someone new. Being short-handed can lead to downtime, mistakes, and employee burnout that leave your staff feeling like they are on a sinking ship – and they will start to look for a way off of it. A competitive benefits package makes employees think twice about leaving – making it pay for itself time and time again.
ARE YOU GIVING YOUR EMPLOYEES REASONS TO BE LESS PRODUCTIVE?
If you don’t have a benefits package at all, even if you don’t legally have to, you might be sabotaging your own productivity. The ACA exchange plans change nearly every year, and the premiums aren’t getting cheaper. This means that every year around this time, anyone who doesn’t get insurance through their employer has to reeducate themselves about what the offerings are, and re-evaluate whether they can afford them.
Even if employees weren’t shopping health plans on company time (which, they definitely are), they are going to be thinking about insurance, rather than the task at hand. They may need to take longer breaks or extra time off to deal with the process; many even consider second jobs or start looking for higher-paying opportunities. It’s easy to just say that these are personal issues, and “not your problem”, but every single one of these things affects worker productivity to some degree.
CAN YOU AFFORD TO PROVIDE BENEFITS?
When you consider all the potential costs of distraction, turnover, and tax penalties, the right benefits package can be surprisingly affordable. Plummer Insurance’s benefits team can help you sort through all of the available option and will find the right one for your business.
