What to look for in a QSEHRA plan administrator
The last thing a small business employer wants to do is more paperwork. Your employees are valuable to you, and you want to provide them with benefits that matter, like an employee health reimbursement arrangement (HRA), but getting stuck under paperwork can feel like an insurmountable task to overcome.
If you’ve considered offering some kind of HRA as an alternative to traditional group health insurance, but the time and effort to administer it keeps you from moving forward, it’s time to consider a QSEHRA plan administrator for your employee's health care reimbursement arrangement.
What is a QSEHRA plan administrator?
A QSEHRA plan administrator is a helpful software tool that makes offering your employees a health benefit much easier, saving you time, money, and stress. Your QSEHRA administration software allows for tax-free reimbursement of qualified medical expenses and employee insurance premiums.
As a small employer (with 50 full-time employees or less), your qualified small employer HRA allows you to set aside a fixed amount each month that employees can use to purchase individual health insurance or use on medical expenses, tax-free. You get to offer small business health insurance benefits without the hassle of administering a group plan, and your employees will be happy to choose the plan they want rather than squeezing into a one-size-fits-all plan.
Your QSEHRA plan administrator will ensure that employee privacy is protected – a task that can take a lot of time and effort to make sure medical receipts and information is secured if you tried to administer your own QSEHRA plan. In short, your QSEHRA plan administrator takes care of all the paperwork and other tasks associated with your employee health benefit offering and communicates the benefits to your employees.
QSEHRA plan administrators: what to look for
When you’re looking for QSEHRA plan administrators to help with your employee’s health care reimbursement program, you want to ensure that a few main points are covered. Does the QSEHRA administration software ensure employee privacy? All health plans, including those reimbursed through a QSEHRA, must observe the HIPAA Privacy Rule to protect a person's private medical information. If you were to administer the plan yourself, employee privacy would be breached. In addition, that creates a mountain of paperwork that employers must keep up with and secure. Your time is better spent on other important tasks.
QSEHRA Administration
It’s not in the employer's best interest to manage their own HRA plan due to federal privacy requirements. It’s also just not the best idea if you want to build trust with your employees. Employers have to verify that employees are using funds to pay for health insurance and medical expenses — but having employees submit receipts risks fines for HIPAA violations. It’s best for employers to outsource the administration of plans to a QSEHRA administrator.
What should QSEHRA plan administrators do?
The obvious big-picture goal is to make your life easier. When you work with a QSEHRA plan administrator like Take Command, that’s exactly what you’ll experience. Less stress, more freedom, happier employees.
With a QSEHRA plan administrator like Take Command, you’ll have a quick and easy online signup process and access to a customized admin portal that lets you:
- Review and approve HRA documents
- View monthly reimbursement reports
- Add or remove employees
- Manage subscriptions
- Update payment information
- See overview information about HRAs
- Access onboarding and orientation videos (for employers and employees)
- Access tax forms and documents
- Access sample employee communications (like letters and flyers to promote your new health benefit)
The platform makes it easy for you to maintain an employee roster, access statements and reports, and process reimbursements.
84% of our clients surveyed said they spend less than an hour each month administering their HRA.
Sounds great, right?
There are also more specific things you want to ensure your QSEHRA plan administrator does for you. Here’s what you should expect:
Keep you in compliance.
Your QSEHRA plan administrator role is to take compliance, notifications, and reporting off your plate. What does that actually mean? These are some of the specific forms, rules, and regulations that a QSEHRA administrator.
Take care of employee onboarding and support.
Your QSEHRA administrator should communicate with your employees about their HRA benefits, how to use the HRA, and provide helpful educational materials and support. They’ll also help employees shop for individual health insurance plans to use with their QSEHRA or set up their existing health plan for reimbursement. Our licensed health professionals are ready to help your team optimize their QSEHRA reimbursements.
