Benefits Compliance
Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs)
Must Be Distributed to Your Plan Participants
ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requires plan administrators of group health plans to comply with two important requirements or risk possible penalties and audits:
- Maintain and distribute accurate Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs) to plan participants
- Group health plans must be administered in accordance with a written Plan Document which must be made available to plan participants and beneficiaries upon request.
What are the Penalties for Non-Compliance?
Employers/plan administrators may be liable for serious penalties if they don’t provide an SPD or have a current Plan Document:
- Failure to provide an SPD or Plan Document within 30 days of receiving a request from a plan participant or beneficiary can result in a penalty of up to $110/day per participant or beneficiary for each violation.
- Lack of an SPD could trigger a plan audit by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
- The DOL has increased its audit staff and national enforcement initiatives to investigate employers’ compliance with Health Care Reform, resulting in companies of all sizes being audited and being required to provide an SPD and Plan Document.
The Solution
Typically, the cost to develop an SPD and Plan Document can be very expensive. We have solved this problem, by using a system developed together with a major ERISA law firm, making it easy and economical to comply with federal requirements.
BenefitHelp can provide you with a Wrap SPD and Wrap Plan document. These documents are designed to wrap around existing certificates of insurance and benefit plan booklets to provide the required provisions and information necessary to comply with ERISA. To be compliant, the Wrap SPD and accompanying benefit plan component documents must be distributed to plan participants.
What Makes Our Additional HR & Compliance Resources Different?
Our toolbox is a completely customizable go-to resource for your HR and Compliance needs. You can tailor the experience through our various modules based on your unique demands.
You will be able to generate Forms 1094/1095 simply by importing completed workbooks. You can even print forms and file with the IRS or distribute to employees—streamlining ACA compliance in three simple steps.
Satisfying your COBRA notice obligations does not have to be challenging. In three simple steps, create all six required COBRA notices.
Produce custom benefits notices, saving hours of time and effort. When laws or corporate circumstances change, simply update the information, and generate a new notice instantly. With the Compliance Notice Builder, you’ll have the notices you need in minutes, plus distribution guidelines.
Job descriptions are such a valuable tool for your employees, developing them can be stressful. The Custom Job Description Builder helps you create the most complete job description so employees can achieve their true potential, which contributes to the success of the business.
Get a complete picture of the actual cost when hiring new employees. From compensation and benefits to recruiting, training and other costs, this easy-to-use calculator accounts for those typical expenses you may not necessarily think about when hiring a new employee.
Create and communicate your organization’s HR policies and procedures quickly and conveniently. Generate custom employee handbooks, branded to any organization, by simply answering a few quick questions. State and federal content is available along with the ability to upload any custom content.
Whether your company is small or large, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) requires the display of several different posters in the workplace. Identify the required posters by using the Poster Advisor to generate a list of federal laws administered by the DOL, along with links to download printable posters.
Understand rights and responsibilities under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA Advisor can assist in understanding notice requirements, valid reasons to leave, which employers are required to provide FMLA leave, which employees are eligible to take FMLA leave and more.
Just by answering a few questions about your health care plan, you can generate your own customized compliance calendar. Featuring a rolling list of federal compliance dates, monthly reminders and supplementary resources, you will have everything they need to remain informed, meet upcoming deadlines and generate the applicable notices.
Analyze your human resource competencies to ensure you are creating an environment for employees to thrive. Assess HR management practices, employee relations, recruiting process, training and development process, and more. Once a module is completed, explanations will be provided to highlight where improvements can be made.
Choose from over 400 pre-developed behavioral interview questions in 49 categories to create a ready-to-use interview guide in just a few minutes. This will ensure that you are asking the right interview questions, as these are key to evaluating whether a candidate has the knowledge, skills and qualities necessary to become a successful employee.
This tool is a convenient way to view and download labor laws in different states. If you have locations in multiple states, you may be concerned about which state labor laws apply to your business. This easy to-use resource will generate side-by side charts you can use to compare and contrast state laws.
A turnkey solution that helps track incidents, generate OSHA mandated reports and create forms— all in a secure, cloud-based environment with 24/7 access.
Performance reviews are an important tool for motivating employees and increasing their contributions to your business, but the process can be stressful. This tool generates performance reviews based on an employee’s occupation, which can be customized with ratings and comments to describe performance issues. The customizable action plan will then help the employee improve their performance, so they can achieve their true potential while at the same time contribute to the success of your business.
Using this tool, search compensation and pay structure reports either annually or by the hour. What’s more, salary benchmarking survey information can be viewed and compared nationally, by state or within a state (narrowed by region or metro area). You will have access to salary data on over 800 job positions right at their fingertips.
A well-written job description is one of the main ways you connect qualified applicants to positions at your organization. Using sample job descriptions, you can effectively and accurately highlight an employment opportunity to potential candidates.
It’s easy for your employees to think of total compensation simply in terms of salary, but it’s so much more than that. This step-by step tool generates a total compensation statement in minutes, which, in turn, helps educate your employees on the value of their benefits. Total compensation statements not only boost the morale of your employees, but they can also be a powerful retention tool.
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