With all of the HR technology resources that have come to the market to streamline standard administrative processes, moving to an online enrollment benefits enrollment system seems to be one of the those modern transitions that many employers have put off.

With the advent of the Affordable Care Act, and the increasing need to have accessible data for completing annual IRS 1095-C forms and track healthcare expenses, online benefits enrollment software is having a larger role to play in ongoing HR administrative processes than mere annual surges during open enrollment periods.

For those that are curious about the immediate and long-term return on investment (ROI) in online enrollment software, the following blog will highlight some areas of reduced manual labor, increased automation, and decreased operating costs that can result from making the transition from paper to online benefits enrollment.

Reduce the Enrollment Timeline by 71%

According to client feedback, the typical amount of time HR professionals and benefits specialists are spending in a traditional paper-enrollment process is 35-45 minutes per enrollee. This includes such tasks as:

• Collecting paper enrollment forms
• Requesting revisions
• Reviewing and approving enrollment requests
• Faxing forms to insurance carriers or inputting enrollments into carrier websites

Those that made the transition to a self-service online enrollment system reported a 71-88% reduction in time spent per enrollee during open enrollment. That’s the difference between a benefits specialist for a 200 life employer taking three and a half weeks versus four working days to complete annual enrollments.

Much of the time savings are accomplished through:

• Increased efficiency in reviewing and approving forms
• Increased efficiency in requesting revisions
• Automated migration of enrollment data to carrier websites through Electronic Data Interface
• Reduced reconciliations due to data entry errors

Some ROI will take time to realize. In initial years, of course, there will be a learning curve for employees, demanding some upfront time investment in system orientation and building an adoption campaign for the new enrollment experience.

Others are more instantaneous. Employers and HR professionals realize an immediate ROI in time recovery through automated EDI, no longer having to manually interface with insurance carriers.

Decreased Compliance Vulnerability

The Affordable Care Act has become one of HR’s greatest concerns. Aside from the new regulation’s annual reporting requirements, employers need to be prepared to face the scrutiny of a potential IRS audit.

With online enrollment software, employers have the ability to retain enrollment information, such as coverage offer dates, declinations, and waivers that traditionally would be maintained at the carrier level.

The decreased compliance vulnerability is twofold:

• Employers retain their enrollment information for Affordable Care Act reporting in a single and accessible system
• Employers maintain a clear audit trail of their coverage audit and enrollment history in the unfortunate case of an IRS audit

Related Blog: What to Look For in an Obamacare Software Solution

Reduced Printing and Labor Cost

It’s difficult to quantify the hard-savings attached to reduced printing, but we know it is a true cost to paper-based open enrollment. Between the enrollment forms, summary plan descriptions, summaries of benefits and coverage, instruction forms, etc. the amount of paper and ink charges during an open enrollment can start to mount up.

Not to mention, someone has to dedicate the time to putting these packets together and delivering them to the employees.

Most online benefits enrollment systems offer electronic document libraries to allow employees to access SPDs, SBCs, and other benefits information through their online employee benefits portal. Online benefit comparison modules allow employees to evaluate different medical plans side-by-side, providing a true apples-to-apples comparison of deductibles and copays and greater confidence and satisfaction in benefit elections.

Icing on the Cake

Stand-alone enrollment software certainly provides efficiencies, but integrating with other HRIS and HR adminstration systems creates greater opportunities for reduced labor costs, diminished operating expenses, and greater compliance protection.

• Merging online benefits software with payroll systems creates opportunities for automating benefit deductions and reducing payroll discrepancies and tax filing errors caused by human oversight through manual data entry
• Integrating payroll, benefits, and employee time-tracking systems creates opportunities for fully automating ACA compliance tracking and IRS reporting

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Technology resourcing has made tremendous advances over the past decade. The Millenial Generation has arrived, and will emerge as the dominant generation in the workforce over the next 8 years. Though organizations may still feel insecure about their employee’s ability to make the shift from paper to online enrollment, the immediate returns and forthcoming shift in the workforce is a strong initial argument for beginning the transition.