Products September 14, 2020

PeopleKeep Offers ICHRA Decision and Design Support Tool

Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements allow smaller employers, that might have smaller benefit budgets, to offer a good health benefit to employees.

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PeopleKeep, a provider of personalized benefits for small- to medium-sized organizations, has announced the availability of an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) online tool to help employers design and decide on an ICHRA benefit compared with a traditional group health insurance plan.

Starting in January, employers were able to use ICHRAs to provide their workers with tax-preferred funds to pay for the cost of health insurance coverage that workers purchase in the individual market, subject to certain conditions.

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PeopleKeep notes that as employers and their human resource (HR) leaders consider and plan for 2021 health benefits, they may be faced with several challenges, such as greater pressure to offer a health benefit to more employees during the coronavirus pandemic, increased insurance rates that don’t fit constrained budgets during an economic downturn and confusion around how an ICHRA might work for them since many insurance brokers and other benefits advisers are still learning about ICHRAs.

Using the online tool, a PeopleKeep personalized benefits adviser will help an organization understand:

  • The budgetary trade-offs between its current group plan or quote versus an ICHRA;
  • The costs of different on-exchange plans available to each specific employee based on age and location;
  • How applicable large employers (ALEs) can meet affordability requirements under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), including understanding the use of key safe harbors; and
  • How minimum class sizes apply in cases in which the employer intends to keep or offer employer-sponsored group health insurance to a different class of employees.
For now, PeopleKeep’s online ICHRA design and decision tool is only available when working with a PeopleKeep personalized benefits adviser. Employers may add their licensed insurance broker to keep them involved in the process, and PeopleKeep intends to make the tool available for third-party use in subsequent versions.

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