Of all the health insurance regulations, ERISA plan documentation regulations are one of the most misunderstood and one of the most costly for those who take a wrong turn — even unintentionally. In fact, the Department of Labor estimates that more than 75% of employers of corporate-sponsored health & welfare benefit plans are out of compliance and at high risk for ERISA violations, whether unintentional or not.
ERISA Plan Documentation Regulations
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) is a federal law that requires employers to abide by specific regulations concerning health and welfare benefit plans. ERISA requires that all company sponsored health and welfare plans must be administered in accordance with a written plan document.
Since the adoption of the Affordable Care Act, government oversight of benefit plans has come under the microscope. To ensure that benefit programs offered to corporate employees are compliant, the government has increased its auditing of employer sponsored benefit plans. Plans found out of compliance, no matter the infraction, are at risk for potential fines and legal retribution from plan participants.
One way to reduce the risk of fines is to have NPPG produce your Health and Welfare Plan Document.
Plan sponsors often feel that maintaining ERISA compliance can be burdensome, especially when they could be potentially risking steep fines. Many plan sponsors fail to understand that they can be personally liable for a breach of fiduciary duty, even when unintentional. All employers are becoming vulnerable to ERISA class-action lawsuits, not just the big players.
3 Common Red Flags in Health & Welfare Plan Administration
As a professional employee benefits consulting firm, one of our goals at NPPG is to help health and welfare plan sponsors stay in compliance. Take a moment to review this list of three of the most common red flags that may lead to ERISA violations and see how it might apply to you and your current benefit plans.
- Improperly denying benefits to current or former employees
- Breach of fiduciary duty toward employees covered by plan
- Interference with the rights of employees covered by plans
Contact us directly for additional information on how we can make the management of ERISA compliance seamless.
Assessing Risks for ERISA Violations
It’s critical for employers to get a handle on potential health and welfare plan compliance violations as quickly as possible to allow them time to proactively limit exposures and risks. Taking a careful review of their health and welfare plans, plan sponsors should pay special attention to identifying and correcting potential fiduciary issues within plan documents, operations, and procedures.
ERISA standards of conduct are specific in outlining the fiduciary responsibilities of the Plan Administrator, by default, the plan sponsor. But, often the plan sponsor may not have the administrative or the internal resources, to monitor every minute detail of the health and welfare plan compliance.
Help protect against non-compliance by allowing NPPG to produce your Health & Welfare plan document.
Protect Against ERISA Violations with NPPG
At NPPG, we believe that plan sponsors should not have to burden the risk of ERISA violations and the penalties and punishments that come with them. As your trusted professional Employee Benefits Consultant, we will competently navigate the complex fiduciary landscape for you and mitigate the personal fiduciary responsibility associated with your corporate health and welfare plans.