{"id":231,"date":"2017-09-02T02:06:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-02T02:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/?p=231"},"modified":"2018-06-25T19:18:52","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T19:18:52","slug":"federal-compliance-alert-spds-and-plan-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/2017\/09\/federal-compliance-alert-spds-and-plan-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Compliance Alert: SPDs and Plan Documents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that due to health care reform the Department of Labor\u00a0(DOL) has increased their focus on auditing all employee benefits plans,\u00a0including health and welfare benefits plans?<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s Required?<\/h2>\n<p>ERISA (the federal <!--more-->Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requires\u00a0employers of all sizes who are plan administrators of their group health\u00a0plans to comply with 2 important requirements or risk potential penalties\u00a0and possible audits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maintain and distribute Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs) to plan\u00a0participants which accurately reflect the contents of the plan and\u00a0which include specific information as required under federal law.<\/li>\n<li>Group health plans must be administered in accordance with a written\u00a0Plan Document which must be made available to plan participants and\u00a0beneficiaries upon request.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many companies mistakenly assume that insurance contracts, certificates\u00a0of insurance and benefits summaries fulfill the ERISA requirements for\u00a0an SPD and Plan Document\u2013but they don\u2019t include the required or recommended\u00a0provisions that protect the plan and the employer. Health care Reform\u00a0has added even more complexity to the disclosure requirements and as<br \/>\naccelerated the DOL audit program.<\/p>\n<h2>Penalties for Non-Compliance<\/h2>\n<p>Employers\/plan administrators may be liable for penalties if they don\u2019t<br \/>\nprovide an SPD or have a current Plan Document:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Failure to provide an SPD or Plan Document within 30 days of receiving<br \/>\na request from a plan participant or beneficiary can result in a penalty<br \/>\nof up to $110\/day per participant or beneficiary for each violation.<\/li>\n<li>Lack of an SPD could trigger a plan audit by the U.S. Department<br \/>\nof Labor (DOL).<\/li>\n<li>The DOL has increased its audit staff and national enforcement initiatives<br \/>\nto investigate employers\u2019 compliance with Health Care Reform, resulting<br \/>\nin companies of all sizes being audited and being required to provide<br \/>\nan SPD and Plan Document.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Solution<\/h2>\n<p>Typically, the cost to develop an SPD and Plan Document can be very\u00a0expensive\u2013but we have solved this problem with a sophisticated system\u00a0developed together with a major ERISA law firm and endorsed by the National\u00a0Association of Health Underwriters that makes it easy and economical\u00a0to comply with federal requirements.<\/p>\n<p>DDI Benefits, Inc. will provide you with a Wrap SPD and Wrap Plan Document\u00a0which are designed to wrap around existing certificates of insurance\u00a0and benefit plan booklets to provide the required provisions and information\u00a0necessary to comply with ERISA. To be compliant, the Wrap SPD and accompanying\u00a0benefit plan component documents must be distributed to plan participants.\u00a0Our document compliance solution includes the following benefits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Customized Wrap SPD and Wrap Plan Document that provide the required\u00a0ERISA provisions and information that will help you achieve compliance.\u00a0Distribution guidelines that explain how and when to provide these\u00a0compliance documents to your plan participants.<\/li>\n<li>The ability to keep your documents current and updated as the federal\u00a0government issues new amendments or when your plan information needs\u00a0to be changed, typically at renewal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Cost<\/h2>\n<p>Contact\u00a0DDI at 503.206.5654 or <a href=\"mailto:info@ddibenefits.com\">info@ddibenefits.com<\/a>\u00a0for pricing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Did you know that due to health care reform the Department of Labor\u00a0(DOL) has increased their focus on auditing all employee benefits plans,\u00a0including health and welfare benefits plans? What\u2019s Required? ERISA (the federal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-compliance","tag-small-business"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa1tE9-3J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ddibenefits.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}