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ISSUE 6
General benefit meetings with workers, also known as town halls, have been used with success to showcase all components of the plans, changes from prior plans, and employee financial responsibility.
The first payroll after a new health plan year can be time-consuming as extra auditing is needed. The new deductions should be compared to the new enrollment files prior to the first cycle of payroll following the plan change. It’s complicated, but with the partnership between payroll and benefits, both can accomplish compliant reporting and withholding deductions surrounding an employer’s health care program, providing a seamless employee experience. Without these two departments providing expertise, employers could have legal exposure upon implementation and employees would suffer as well.
Electronic Communications and Sign-Up
Email and text messaging have become popular electronic tools to communicate the benefit offerings and processes for enrollment.
To enroll in benefits several models could be used.
Employers may allow the employee to make their own elections electronically online via the benefit administrator system, complete a paper application to be submitted to the benefits team or even the use of a call center to take selections over the phone. With each choice, under most systems, employees are told how much the benefit will cost them per pay period. After employees have made their selections, annual enrollment files are submitted to each vendor for the creation of policies and benefit ID cards. The date the new programs become effective can be the beginning of the new calendar year, but, in many cases, the plan year does not correspond with the calendar year.
Author: April Smith
April Smith, CPP, is the Director of Payroll & Benefits for Senior Lifestyle LLC (SLC) based in Chicago. SLC specializes in the senior housing industry. April has 18 years of experience in various Payroll & HR roles where she developed a broad range of skills in areas critical to the employee base of an organization and operational goals.
For this, the benefit team will partner with the payroll team to stop prior payroll
deductions and update employee profiles with the new elections.
Email: AprilS@seniorlifestyle.com
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