2022 “Pay or Play” Affordability Percentage - Under the “Pay or Play” provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), applicable large employers – generally those with 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalent employees) – may be subject to a penalty if they do not offer affordable coverage to their full-time employees. For plan years beginning in 2022, the IRS announced that coverage will generally be considered affordable if the employee’s required contribution for the lowest cost employee-only health plan offered is 9.61% or less of his or her 2022 household taxable income. As an example of this, say John Doe works 30 hours a week at $15 an hour, and John’s employer leverages the “Rate of Pay” Safe Harbor on the annual 1095-C. In order to satisfy the ACA affordability provision as it relates to John for the 2022 tax year, his employer has to offer an employee-only medical plan that does not cost John more than $187.40 a month.
FREE Payroll Vendor & HR Technology Search – Need help looking for a new Payroll vendor, or maybe just looking to improve the relationship with your current vendor? Millson James is an independent HR & Payroll Technology consultant that can help you search and evaluate IT vendors associated with your company’s Payroll / HRIS / Benefits Admin / Time & Attendance functions. Stumm Insurance continues to offer this service at NO COST to our clients (i.e. Stumm pays Millson James for their fees), and many of our clients have already taken advantage of this free service, saving countless hours and dollars in their search. See the flyer attached, and feel free to contact your Stumm Insurance rep to learn more about how Millson James can assist your company in its HR/payroll vendor search.
Marketplace Exchange Notice Reminder – Since late 2013, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been requiring that employers provide a notice to new employees informing them about their state’s health insurance “marketplace”. New hires must receive the notice within 14 days of the employee’s start date. The notice may be distributed electronically or by hard copy, and while there is no requirement to obtain an employee’s signature; an employer may want to track delivery/receipt. This is just a reminder to work a copy of this notice into all the other required forms you consistently provide when onboarding new hires. The required notice template (which has not changed since 2013) can be found at the following DOL website: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/laws-and-regulations/laws/affordable-care-act/for-employers-and-advisers/coverage-options-notice.
PSA on Cyberattacks – Spring & summer are often the time of year where spear-phishing email efforts ramp up with attackers using extensive research to target a specific audience, and then posing as a familiar and trusted entity – sometimes even an insurance carrier or medical provider – in its email to a mark. Spear phishers seek a company’s valuable information, which can even start with just obtaining an employee’s login credentials. The IRS offers the following tips to protect against spear phishing:
- Educate all employees about spear phishing in particular.
- Never take an email from a familiar source at face value, especially if it asks you to open a link, attachment, or includes a threat about a dire consequence that will result if you fail to take action.
- If an email contains a link, hover your cursor over the link to see the web address (URL) destination. If it’s not a URL you recognize, or if it’s an abbreviated URL, don’t open it.
- Poor grammar and odd wording are warning signs of a spear-phishing email.
- Consider calling the sender to confirm the authenticity of an email you’re unsure of, but don’t use the phone number in the email.
Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact your Stumm Insurance Client Service Team.