2016 Trend - ACA Compliance Costs

The cost impact of the ACA (new employee eligibility, fees, reporting, etc.) is creating urgency to identify new areas for cost containment. In the Health and Well-being Touchstone Survey Resuls by PWC, 83% of employers are re-evaluating their benefits strategies as a way of mitigating the ACA burden. In many instances, the CFO is looking to HR to take actions now to curb these growing costs.

One tried-and-true area of cost containment your clients should be considering is dependently eligibility verification. A dependent audit, especially when paired with ongoing verification, will help your clients offset the ACA cost burden with significant, immediate cost savings.

According to the IFEBP 2015 Employer-Sponsored Health Care: ACA's Impact study, 34% of employers have started taking action to avoid triggering the Cadillac tax. While this report was published before the tax was delayed two years, it underscores that this issue is gaining priority with HR departments. While strategies vary, two initiatives you may want to explore with your clients are the adoption of a working spouse provision and the implementation of ongoing dependent eligibility verification—both proven, meaningful methods of cost containment. This is especially true for employers at or near the cost ceiling as health care cost growth is expected to outpace the indexing of the statutory thresholds, placing many employers at risk for the Cadillac tax.