Employee Benefits: 3 Business Planning Questions & Answers for the 2015 Employee Benefit Year

As your businesses moves into the next year, there are a lot of major topics surrounding employee benefits and planning you should be considering. These include:

Penalties; the IRS; higher premiums; tax increases; new employer mandates taking effect in 2015 and 2016; coverage levels; coverage periods; and overall ACA compliancy.

And with so much going on, small businesses are those especially concerned about burdensome new laws, taxes, and perhaps most crippling, premium hikes.

Current State of Affairs: Employee Benefits Issues on the Rise

Right now, the federal government is assessing an $8 billion fee on health insurance providers. Naturally, these fees will be passed down to employers in the form of higher premiums, and then for employers to maintain a level of sustainability, the costs will be passed down to their employees.

So the question becomes: With so much cost shuffling, how will your business manage your employee benefits?

3 Key Questions for Planning Employee Benefits for Your Business in 2015

For businesses in need of added stability and guidance when it comes to employee benefits, here are three questions you want to keep in mind when planning your 2015 employee benefits strategy:

1. Are you aware of Private Health Insurance Exchanges?Private Health Exchanges offer a simple solution to providing comprehensive, high quality, and accessible care for your employees. Make sure you know the ins and outs of each.

2. How much do you anticipate your health insurance premiums to rise in 2015? Much uncertainty surrounds the 2015 health insurance premium increases. You will want to be in contact with a benefits administration services professional to stay up to date on news, changes, and final announcements.
3. Is Health Care Reform increasing your administrative burdens and costs?Countless regulations and the looming threat of penalties on businesses to enforce ACA legislations are placing unprecedented burdens on human resources departments, and in some cases, on a single person in businesses without the means of a fully staffed HR. You will want to evaluate what type of toll it will take on your business and its administration to stay current with rules, regulations, and compliances.

 

When you’re running a successful business, your focus should be on the services or product you sell. However, if you are tasked with solving for insurance issues and employee benefits solutions, your ability to efficiently execute your business is negatively impacted from the top down.

3 Key Answers to Successfully Solving Employee Benefits for Your Business in 2015

At NARFA, we strive to make insurance more affordable and accessible, and to create an overall better experience for your business by providing you with the critical resources for success, including:

1. NARFA provides solutions for Private Health Insurance ExchangesWe are proud to have operated one of the first fully operational health care exchanges in the country.  NARFA plan designs are ACA compliant and offer more flexibility for your employees.
2. NARFA can help you anticipate & plan for health insurance premium hikesWe have the flexibility and strength to offer the buying power of a larger group due to specially negotiated rates to its members. For example, in 2014, NARFA was able to absorb some costs to help membership face uncertainty and higher costs due to Health Care Reform.
3. NARFA can ease your administrative stress, liability, and overhead We have a dedicated call center and we handle all COBRA, eligibility and enrollment, claims analysis, carrier billing and audits, and we produce communication pieces to ensure compliance. NARFA’s full service extension of your HR makes life easier for you.

 

Please contact us to find out about joining the NARFA group so you can keep your business up to date and on track without the added stress or overhead.

NARFA’s Proven Experience in Employee Benefits Administration

Please click below to see Chad Walier, President of Walier Chevrolet, share why he trusts NARFA with his dealership’s member benefit services: