Providing health benefits to employees has become more complex with the Affordable Care Act’s many changes and compliance requirements. A few providers have developed proprietary administrative platforms that incorporate comprehensive administrative tools, simplify processes, help with enrollment and communications, and even facilitate employer reporting and compliance.

JayDye[1]Essential StaffCARE is a provider of health insurance and benefits to the staffing industry. CEO J. Marshall Dye talks about the changing landscape and how companies like his are leveling the playing field for the staffing industry.

With the complexities in obtaining coverage, comparing plans and ensuring compliance with the ACA, how have technology providers stepped forward to assist companies and consumers?

There are companies, including ours, that have built product comparison systems and cost analysis systems, enabling a staffing company to plug in different approaches to dealing with the mandates of the ACA to see what the financial impact would be. We recommend that staffing companies look at different sources of information, and technology can assist with their strategy and price modeling.

Ensuring compliance can be managed with technology. You must have a product that meets the government’s description and mandates to be compliant. You then must make a complete and proper offer to full-time, qualified employees. The offer should include a benefit summary and rates. It also should give the employee easy and free access to the plan’s complete benefit schedule and exclusions and limitations. In 2016, you must make an offer of a compliant product to 95 percent or more of employees who meet the fulltime classification. You have to determine who they are, and you need technology to provide confirmation that you made that offer.

Has the changing landscape of employee benefits and insurance forced technological adaptation by the staffing industry? If so, how?

We have more than 1,500 staffing company and healthcare clients across the country, ranging from global companies to midsize local and regional staffing firms. Fifty percent of those companies onboard their employees electronically, and 50 percent use paper documents. The changing landscape of the Affordable Care Act is forcing technological adaptation.

We have developed an Affordable Care Act technology that we call the ACA-Audit Log System (ALS). ALS integrates into an existing electronic onboarding system and includes an office manager tool to standardize job applicants’ employment classification (fulltime, part-time or variable hour). ALS is able to present, communicate, enroll and log the employees’ election or declination of coverage. ALS then provides data transfers to the insurance carriers to fulfill the insurance coverage that the employee has selected, and the deduction file back to the employer to effect the payroll deduction from the employee’s paycheck.

The staffing industry reflects a stark contrast between global giants and smaller regional and local firms. How can technology level the playing field between these seemingly incompatible competitors?

At the early stages of the implementation of the ACA, some very expensive technology was made available to the staffing industry to track employee hours and forecast ACA tax implications. Many staffing companies lacked the resources to purchase these systems. This type of technology has evolved and became more affordable, enabling smaller local and regional firms to have access to the same tools. Now, just about any staffing company can afford “look-back” and forecasting technology to assist them.

The other question for smaller companies is, “How do I offer employee benefits to all temporary employees so I can recruit and retain quality employees, and compete with large national firms?” To do this correctly and without disruption to your onboarding and payroll process, you need specialized employee benefit technology that is designed for the staffing industry.

Your company offers a staffing industry-specific administrative platform. What does that involve, and how does it benefit its users?

It’s a fairly complicated process to offer employee benefits through a staffing company. We developed products and systems specifically for the temps. They are designed to provide needed supplemental coverage to employees on a weekly basis. We also created a feature called “in-and-out of benefits” status, which allows employees to skip premiums when they’re not working, without disruption to the staffing firm’s payroll system.

Our products go hand in hand with the administrative platform. We built the administrative processes and products and communication processes together, specifically for the staffing industry.

The health insurance industry historically would not offer major medical insurance to staffing and temporary employment companies because of the high turnover aspect of the group, and the lack of historical claims data. Now insurance carriers must quote any type of company that requests one. But these quotes are not typically viewed as affordable by the staffing industry. Major medical carriers and administrators require ACA compliant plans to fit the traditional model of monthly coverage. This creates a square peg in a round hole, premium collection process for the high turnover employer. To offer major medical plans along with supplemental coverage can result in two different premium collection and remittance processes. That’s a reality of the ACA.

Our platform enables staffing companies to offer benefits not just to the full-time employees required by the Affordable Care Act, but to the high-turnover hourly employees. They can attract a quality employee and retain that employee because they are able to offer benefits. It’s good for the staffing company, it’s good for the staffing company’s clients, and it’s good for the employees they’re placing. Technology allows that to happen.

What types of new technologies and solutions do you think companies will develop to enhance the efficiency, productivity and profitability of staffing companies in the next five years?

With the health insurance disruption caused by the Affordable Care Act, companies will develop efficient and cost-effective ways of offering benefits to the transient employees of the new economy; however, achieving high employee participation will be a challenge. Staffing companies that achieve high participation levels in useable, voluntary benefit plans will realize the financial benefits of recruiting and retaining quality employees. Technology that integrates into the on-boarding process will become an industry requirement to stay competitive.

Companies will use technology to solve critical employee benefit issues: compliance technology for offering ACA compliant products, and the technology of offering and managing non-ACA supplemental products. To be competitive, you must offer a complete suite of compliant and supplemental benefits. In the world of the Affordable Care Act, everyone will have a high deductible and high out-of-pocket plan. Everyone will need basic products that pay for day-to-day medical expenses, dental expenses, and drug expenses that are not covered by high deductible plans.

A staffing company that has the technology to offer a complete suite of employee benefits, and efficiently manages the plans, is going to win.

How can staffing firms efficiently use your technologies to advance their business?

Clients are turning to staffing companies and asking, “Do you have your act together on the Affordable Care Act? Do you offer a compliant plan, fully insured without risk to your firm? Do you have the technology in-place to ensure compliance?” If you do, you will be in a more competitive and stable position.

Our staffing company customers use our products and technologies to assure their clients that they know what they’re doing and have selected the right partner.

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