ACA PAY OR PLAY – ONGOING COMPLIANCE (Part 6 – ACA Series)
We started this ACA blog series with a call to action – do not procrastinate; plan and prepare now. Compliance with the employer shared responsibility mandate is not a onetime event. Complying with ACA is an ongoing process. The reporting is done on an annual basis, so you must constantly be collecting, tracking, monitoring, and maintaining data. You will continually test your data. You will routinely analyze the output and determine your mitigation strategy.
Now is the time to put your team in place, discuss your current situation and build a plan for implementing a compliance solution. Account for all data aspects-benefits, HR, payroll, and time and labor. Determine a manual or system-based approach for testing. Discuss how to get your data onto the required IRS forms.
What should you do? You may think you have plenty of time to act, but the reality is that in our busy world the months pass quickly. If you wait you may not have time to react.
Look into automated solutions to help manage your ACA compliance. We’ve identified many of the data elements you need to collect, maintain, track, test, analyze, and report—realistically it will be a challenge without a technology solution. Remember this is an ongoing process and systems, especially integrated systems, make ongoing processes easier to manage.
Run compliance status checks. Run all the tests to see where you are now as a blueprint for where you need to be.
Determine your strategy. You don’t have to offer healthcare, but be prepared to pay the penalties if you do not. Figure out what employees will receive coverage and what you need to do to make that happen.
Take advantage of the voluntary reporting period. This could be invaluable for testing to see if your systems and procedures are comprehensive enough to provide you the solutions you need.
The takeaway here is to take a proactive approach to compliance with the ACA. A reactive approach may not leave you enough time to collect data, run the appropriate tests, and provide the required reports. Act now.
