BASE^® Blog

With health care costs on the rise every year, from prescription to over-the-counter medications, to copays, and to insurance premiums, there is no end in sight.  When health care expenses are costly, not only do the employees feel the impact financially, but so does the employer who offers health benefits. 

Employers are weighing the pros and cons of offering a traditional group health plan and having a hard time deciding on continuing to offer a group health plan or offering a health reimbursement arrangement.

The best news?  Employers do not have to choose!  And we know what employers might be thinking…”its going to be more expensive to offer BOTH options to our employees…” but it will actually save the employer AND employee!

The BASE® Integrated HRA allows employers with a group health plan in place to reduce the overall cost of health insurance premiums and assist employees with health care expenses not covered by health insurance. 

With the flexible design of the BASE® Integrated HRA, any employer can take advantage of its tax savings by coupling it with a group health plan, helping to suppress the yearly increases associated with traditional forms of health care.  The Integrated HRA helps to cut health care costs and has been proven to reduce health insurance premium increases by 10-50%. 

Employers can choose to raise the deductible on the current group health plan, reducing the overall cost of the insured plan, couple the plan with the BASE® Integrated HRA, and self-insure a portion of the deductible to keep the employee responsibility maintainable.  Funds are protected by only being paid to the employee when a qualifying expense has been adjudicated by BASE® with no prefunding necessary.  Employers now have better control over the cost of their overall group health plan they offer and if they choose to change group health plans, the Integrated HRA is portable and will work with any carrier, health insurance plan, or group benefit plan.                                              

Employees do not have to prefund this HRA and will receive reimbursements as non-reportable and non-taxable income.  Employees now have additional funds to pay for the health care expenses that are not covered by the insurance. 

For employers who want to continue offering a group health plan but see valuable savings each year, the Integrated HRA is more than just a product from BASE®, it’s an approach to affordable health care where employers don’t have to decide.  Contact BASE® at 888.386.9680 or visit www.BASEonline.com.

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The DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered over $1.4 billion for retirement, health, and welfare benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries in fiscal year 2022 through its enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).   66% of ERISA monetary recoveries were from enforcement actions for employee benefit plans or other corrective actions.  As an employer, you may be thinking, “How can I reduce my risk and avoid ERISA violations?

ERISA was designed to protect employees enrolled in employer-sponsored health benefits and mandates that health plans must be in writing.  The Summary Plan Description and Plan Documents are required and fill in the gaps of other documentation to help comply with federal regulations. 

BASE® knows that keeping up with ERISA requirements to stay in compliance can be confusing, time-consuming, and overwhelming, so here is a quick overview of a few common violations and why having an ERISA Wrap can benefit employers. 

• Not providing required documentation to participants. If an employer fails to meet the documentation requirements, the business could face fines and the risk of getting audited by the DOL or IRS.  Having an ERISA Wrap ensures that employers can easily access and distribute documentation per federal guidelines to employees.
• Simplifying Form 5500 filing. Having an ERISA Wrap document in place simplifies the Form 5500 filing process by eliminating the need to file a separate Form 5500 for each health and welfare plan and allowing for a single Form 5500 for all benefits covered under the Wrap document.

Because ERISA can be one of the most challenging of all employment laws and regulations with violations that could be costly, having a third-party administrator to help develop the proper plan documents, while providing them on time, will help minimize compliance risks.  In comes the BASE® ERISA Wrap, which wraps around existing certificates of insurance and benefit plan booklets to provide the required provisions and information and protect the plan and the employer from steep penalties and fines. 

Call BASE® at 1.888.386.9680 or visit www.BASEonline.com for more information.

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