Are you a business owner or manager considering offering the individual coverage HRA (ICHRA) to your employees? With the regulations and compliance standards required for offering an HRA, it can feel like a daunting task.

As a business owner looking into health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) options, you may have been wondering whether the qualified small employer HRA (QSEHRA) or the individual coverage HRA (ICHRA) is the best choice for your company.

The QSEHRA was created in December 2016 and has been a great option for small businesses looking for an alternative to group insurance ever since. In June 2019, the federal government announced the ICHRA as an additional HRA option for businesses of all sizes, available on January 1st, 2020.

While the company eligibility requirements are different for each HRA, you might find yourself in a situation where your business would qualify for either plan.

In this post we’ll discuss the differences between the options and how they can affect the way you offer the benefit to your employees. You can use this information, along with your business’s individual goals for health benefits, to help decide which plan is the best fit for your company and employees.

The Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services (the Departments) released information regarding the individual coverage HRA (ICHRA) notice requirements earlier this year.

The notice, which must be sent to all eligible employees 90 days before the benefit is offered, is primarily intended to inform eligible employees of how the ICHRA affects premium tax credits. This information will help employees make an informed decision on whether to participate in the ICHRA or opt out. It also notifies employees that a benefit is being offered and what they can expect from the ICHRA.

This post will cover everything your ICHRA notice needs to include so that you’re offering the benefit in a compliant way.

More than 60 percent of small businesses offering a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) are planning on increasing their employee benefits in 2020, a new survey from PeopleKeep reveals.

The survey, administered to 400 current PeopleKeep customers, asked small business owners to share their thoughts on why they chose an HRA and what their plans were for expanding health benefits next year.

In this post, we’ll share the top findings from our research as well as an infographic displaying even more conclusions.

The final ruling made this year regarding health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) in 2020 has made a special enrollment period (SEP) available to individuals and their dependents who become newly eligible for HRA coverage. Individuals who are newly offered access to either the individual coverage HRA (ICHRA) or the qualified small employer HRA (QSEHRA) with plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2020, will have access to the SEP.

An SEP gives individuals a 60-day opportunity to obtain quality, affordable health care through the individual marketplace outside the regular open enrollment period.

Previously, offering or gaining access to a QSEHRA wasn’t considered a qualifying life event for a SEP in the individual market. Employees who already had coverage could take advantage of their new QSEHRA benefit immediately, but those without coverage were forced to wait until the next open enrollment period or for another qualifying life event to obtain an individual policy.

This final ruling has been a huge step in the right direction to make small business HRAs more flexible and useful to individuals that don’t already have individual coverage.

In this post, we’ll go over six of the most common questions asked about SEPs for ICHRA and QSEHRA. We’ll also discuss how you can provide assistance to your employees once the SEP starts.