Diversified Group Named One of CT’s Healthiest Employers by Making Wellness Part of Company Culture

This article was published on September 16, 2019 on Hartford Business written by Wendy Pierman Mitzel. Photo source is Hartford Business Journal.

1st Place | Category: 1,000 or fewer employees

Diversified Group

Headquarters: Marlborough

Industry: Health insurance and benefits administration

Top Executive: Brooks T. Goodison, President

---

Diversified Group not only offers its customers a worksite wellness plan, it offers programs to its own employees as well.

Company leaders say creating a healthy workplace translates to happier employees, high retention rates and increased customer service.

According to Alison Searles, Diversified Group’s client service specialist, continuity and accessibility are key to defining the culture of wellness within the health insurance firm. Workers can take exercise classes during lunch breaks and organize their schedules in a way that allows them to attend monthly programs like meditation, wellness coaching and fitness challenges.

“Employees want to be healthy and just a little push from Diversified Group has helped some individuals make huge strides when it comes to health,” she explained. “When employees come back from their spin class, yoga or meditation session, they feel a little more clear-headed, a little more energized and ready to tackle the rest of their day as opposed to hitting that 2 p.m. crash.”

Employees can choose from activities led by educated and trained professionals and held on a regular basis. They include weekly fitness classes such as yoga, spinning and strength; monthly meditation sessions; monthly wellness-focused activities; quarterly wellness challenges; and on-demand health coaching or dietetic counseling.

Diversified Group provides programs regularly so employees make wellness part of their everyday routine, said Searles.

“The goal of our program is to instill the concept that wellness is a lifelong priority,” she added.

Targeting the needs and wants of some 55 employees is another important part of offering the right programs to gain participation. Recently, Diversified Group began instruction in yoga nidra, also referred to as sleep yoga, on the suggestion of the holistic health specialist.

Diversified Group also has a robust incentive campaign that offers small rewards for meeting certain benchmarks and larger ones for commitments spanning the entire year.

“Rewards initially motivate employees to participate in our wellness challenges and activities, but many have recognized that they truly feel better when they participate and this encourages them to keep going,” Searles said. “We have quite a few people who now lead healthy lifestyles simply because they learned how great being healthy feels.”

The program is communicated to employees through a new wellness portal. In addition, a yearly aggregate evaluation, along with satisfaction surveys and one-on-one meetings, allow for adjustments and improvements.

Click here to view the full list of HBJ’s 2019 Healthiest Employers awards.

IRS Publishes PCOR Fees through September 2019

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund fee is a fee on issuers of health insurance policies and plan sponsors of self-insured health plans that helps to fund the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which was established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The institute assists, through research, patients, clinicians, purchasers and policy-makers, in making informed health decisions by advancing the quality and relevance of evidence-based medicine. The institute compiles and distributes comparative clinical effectiveness research findings. Under the ACA, all medical plans are responsible for paying the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research fee to the IRS, based on the number of plan participants. If the plan is insured, the insurance carrier pays the fee on behalf of the policyholder. If the plan is self-insured, the employer/plan sponsor must file the Form 720 for the second quarter and pay the fee to the IRS directly.

The IRS recently published its PCOR fee for policy and plan years ending January through September 2019 and the applicable dollar amount is $2.45, which is multiplied by the number of covered lives determined for the appropriate period.

The PCOR program will sunset in 2019. The last payment will apply to plan years that end by September 30, 2019 and that payment will be due in July 2020. There will not be any PCOR fee for plan years that end on October 1, 2019 or later.

The PCOR fee is paid by the health insurer for fully insured plans. All self-insured medical plans, including health FSAs and HRAs must pay the fee unless they are considered an excepted benefit:

• • A health FSA is an excepted-benefit as long as the employer does not contribute more than $500/year to the accounts and offers another medical plan with non-excepted benefits.
  • An HRA is an excepted-benefit if it only reimburses for excepted-benefits (e.g., limited-scope dental and vision expenses or long-term care coverage) and is not integrated with the group medical plan.

The PCOR fee is calculated off the average number of lives covered during the policy year. That means that all parties enrolled will have to be accounted for such as dependents, spouses, retirees, and COBRA beneficiaries. Depending on when the plan starts and ends also can determine the fee per form. Participating employees and dependents are counted as covered lives. For HRA and health FSA plans, just count each participating employee as a covered life.

Clients who have elected to have Diversified Group assist with the PCOR fee calculation can expect an email in June 2019 which will include a copy of the completed Form 720 and a PCOR calculation worksheet with supporting documentation. For the current year, clients will need to file the Form 720 by July 31, 2019.

Despite Recent Court Ruling – ACA Enforcement Is Still the Law of the Land… For Now

On December 14^th, the U.S. District Court for the Fifth Circuit in Texas ruled the Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional in light of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 which eliminated the tax penalty under the individual mandate. The district court sided with 20 Republican state attorneys general that argued since the individual mandate was eliminated, the entire law was invalidated. The ruling went further and also ruled that all of the consumer protections under the ACA were tied to the individual mandate and they were also unconstitutional. These include the prohibition against insurers charging patients more for pre-existing conditions, allowing children to stay on their parent’s plans until age 26, and removal of caps on coverage.

What’s Next?

The judge in the case did not rule the law has to be enjoined immediately, however, it is unclear when the ruling would take effect. Sixteen Democratic state attorneys general and the District of Columbia filed a motion asking the court to clarify the impact of the ruling and confirm that the ACA “is still the law of the land.” Additionally, a series of appeals will most likely keep the ruling from being enacted anytime in the near future… thus:

• People can still enroll in ACA health plans in states with extended deadlines (without an extension, exchange enrollment ended on December 14^th.);
• There is no impact on 2019 plans that people may have recently enrolled in. Immediately following the ruling, Seema Verma, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, stated the ruling “has no impact on current coverage or coverage in a 2019 plan;”
• Employers still face IRS deadlines to file forms 1095-B and 1095-C. (1095-B and 1095-C forms must be delivered to individuals by March 4, 2019. The 1094 and 1095 B & C forms must be filed with the IRS by February 28^th if filing paper and April 1^st if filing electronically);
• The Employer Mandate is still in force, penalties have been and will continue to be assessed for failure to file these returns;
• With the Employer Mandate still in force, Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) should continue to follow the Employer Shared Responsibility Rules (ESR) to avoid a penalty. This means offering a plan that meets minimum value and affordability to at least 95% of your full time employees (defined as those working at least 30 or more hours per week).

The case will most likely make its way to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the U.S. Supreme Court before any definitive action can be considered.

Diversified Group Named One of Connecticut’s Healthiest Employers of 2018

This announcement from the Hartford Business Journal was published on December 3, 2018.

Meet CT’s healthiest workplaces

Hartford Business Journal’s first-ever Healthiest Employers Awards recognize organizations dedicated to employee health and safety in addition to their efforts to implement wellness programs.

The awards program was done in partnership with the Healthiest Employers Group, which determined the finalists and winners using a scoring methodology managed by Springbuk, a privately held technology and data research firm.

Companies that participated in the awards program had to complete an hour-long online assessment. Companies were then ranked based on their performance on the following six measures: culture and leadership commitment; foundational components; strategic planning; communication and marketing; programming and interventions; and reporting and analytics.

CATEGORY: 0-150 CT EMPLOYEES

1st Place | Antea Group

2nd Place | FM Global

3rd Place | Gallagher

4th Place | Diversified Group

5th Place | Safelite AutoGlass

Photo Source: Hartford Business Journal

Diversified Group

4th Place | Category: 0-150 CT employees

Industry: Employee benefits

CT Headquarters: Marlborough

CT Employees: 64

When Diversified Group (DG) started its fitness program back in 1985, it basically consisted of a boot camp-style fitness contest.

But over the years, commitment to health and wellness among employees has intensified to where DG now has a wellness department staffed by six certified health coaches, personal trainers and registered dietitians. The wellness team is responsible for spearheading the company’s wellness program.

DG has also maintained a modest fitness facility on its grounds, and within the last five years, certified instructors have been stopping by on a weekly basis for cycling, strength and yoga classes.

DG also hosts regular meditation workshops giving workers access to guided meditation sessions to decompress and recharge.

IRS Releases Adjusted PCOR Fee

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund fee is a fee on issuers of health insurance policies and plan sponsors of self-insured health plans that helps to fund the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which was established by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The institute assists, through research, patients, clinicians, purchasers and policy-makers, in making health decisions by advancing the quality of evidence-based medicine. The institute compiles and distributes comparative clinical effectiveness research findings. Under the ACA, all medical plans are responsible for paying the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research fee to the IRS, based on the number of plan participants. If the plan is fully-insured, the insurance carrier pays the fee on behalf of the policyholder. If the plan is self-insured, the employer/plan sponsor must file the Form 720 for the second quarter and pay the fee to the IRS directly.

The IRS recently published its PCOR fee for policy and plan years ending:  January through September 2018 the applicable dollar amount is $2.39, which is multiplied by the number of covered lives determined for the appropriate period. For policy and plan years ending October through December 2018, the applicable dollar amount is $2.45.

All self-insured medical plans, including health FSAs and HRAs must pay the fee unless they are considered an excepted-benefit:

• A health FSA is an excepted-benefit as long as the employer does not contribute more than $500/year to the accounts and offers another medical plan with non-excepted benefits.
• An HRA is an excepted-benefit if it only reimburses for excepted-benefits (e.g., limited-scope dental and vision expenses or long-term care coverage) and is not integrated with the group medical plan.

The PCORI fee is calculated off the average number of lives covered during the policy year. That means that all parties enrolled will have to be accounted for such as dependents, spouses, retirees, and COBRA beneficiaries. For HRA and health FSA plans, just count each participating employee as a covered life.

Payment of the PCOR fee for the calendar 2018 plan year — the last year the fee applies — will be due by July 31, 2019 (payments may extend into 2020 for non-calendar-year plans).

Clients who have elected to have Diversified Group assist with the PCOR fee calculation can expect an email in June 2019, which will include a copy of the completed Form 720 and a PCOR calculation worksheet with supporting documentation. Clients will need to file the Form 720 by July 31, 2019.

MassHealth Reinstates HIRD Reporting for Employer Sponsored Health Plans

The Health Insurance Responsibility Disclosure (HIRD) form is a new state reporting requirement in Massachusetts beginning in 2018. This form differs from the original HIRD form that was passed into law in 2006 and repealed in 2014. The 2018 form is administered by MassHealth and the Department of Revenue (DOR) through the MassTaxConnect (MTC) web portal. The HIRD form is intended to assist MassHealth in identifying its members with access to employer sponsored health insurance who may be eligible for the MassHealth Premium Assistance Program. The HIRD form is required annually beginning in 2018. The reporting period opens on November 1 and must be completed by November 30 of the filing year. 

Any employers with six or more employees in Massachusetts in any month during the past 12 months preceding the due date of the form (November 30^th of the reporting year) are required to annually submit a HIRD form. An individual is considered to be an employee if they were included on the employer’s quarterly wage report to the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) during the past 12 months. This includes all employment categories, full-time and part-time.

The HIRD form is reported through MassTaxConnect (MTC) web portal (https://mtc.dor.state.ma.us/mtc/_/#1). The MTC is where employer-taxpayers register to file returns, forms and make tax payments. To file your HIRD form, login to your MTC withholding account and select the “file health insurance responsibility disclosure” hyperlink. If you do not have a MTC account or you forgot your password or username, follow the prompts on the site or call the DOR at 614-466-3940.

INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR HIRD REPORTING

The HIRD Form will collect information about the employer’s insurance offerings, including:

• Plan Information – plan year, renewal date.
• Summary of benefits for all available health plans – information regarding in and out of network deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums can be found on the plan’s summary of benefits and coverage.
• Eligibility criteria for insurance offerings – minimum probationary periods and hours worked per week to be eligible for coverage.  Employment based categories, such as full-time, part-time, hourly, salaried.
• Total monthly premiums of all available health plans
• Employer and employee shares of monthly premiums – information on employer and employee monthly contributions toward the cost of medical. Employer cost of coverage is your COBRA rate less 2% and less the employee contribution.

Due to the nature of the filing online, employers with employees in Massachusetts will need to complete this reporting themselves. However, Diversified Group may be able to assist you in the gathering of the required information. Please contact us by November 15^th  if you need assistance with accumulating data.

Mass.gov has compiled a list of frequently asked questions regarding the HIRD form here.

Maine is Reinstituting the Per Member Per Month Assessment to Fund the Maine Guaranteed Access Reinsurance Program

Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) permits a state to apply for a State Innovation Waiver to pursue innovative strategies for providing their residents with access to high quality, affordable health insurance while retaining the basic protections of the ACA. Recently several states have applied for waivers and have been approved. Among these is the State of Maine, which sought to reestablish the Maine Guaranteed Access Reinsurance Association – MGARA (originally established in 2012 but later suspended in light of the ACA’s transitional reinsurance program which expired in 2016). Maine’s Section 1332 waiver to reestablish MGARA was approved by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year. MGARA is a state instituted reinsurance program that automatically cedes high-risk enrollees with one of eight conditions (including various types of cancer, congestive heart failure, HIV and rheumatoid arthritis) and voluntary cedes other high-risk enrollees to the pool in an attempt to help stabilize individual medical premiums by about 9 percent each year beginning in 2019. The program is slated to initially run from January, 2019 through December, 2023. The Governor’s Office pushed to get the program up and running by January, 2019 in an attempt to substantially lower premiums in the individual market.

One of the funding sources supporting MGARA’s operations is a quarterly assessment due from each insured and self-insured plan that writes or otherwise provides medical insurance in Maine (other than federal or state government plans) beginning in 2019 at $4.00 per month for each covered person enrolled under each such policy or plan. Only federal and state employees are exempt from the assessment. The 2019 Quarterly Assessment will apply to policies and plans initiated or renewed on or after January 1, 2019, with the first assessment due on May 15, 2019, and 45 days from the end of each calendar quarter thereafter. Self-funded plans using a Third Party Administrator (TPA) will be assessed and reported through their TPA similar to other state assessments.

Diversified Group will collect and report the MGARA on behalf of our self-insured clients who have members residing in Maine.

Donate with Diversified This Holiday Season

Diversified Group is celebrating the season of giving and will be holding a food drive for our local food bank, the Food Bank of Marlborough, Connecticut. Please consider donating this holiday season as this is the time of year when food banks are in the most need. Donations will be collected until December 13th.

The food bank provides hams for Christmas dinners, so anything that you can think of that would accompany a ham dinner, whether side dishes or supplies, would be helpful. Below is a list of some suggested items:

Cake Mixes
Frostings
Pie Crusts (Boxed)
Muffin/Bread Mixes
Cranberry Sauce
Any Canned Goods
Spray Shortening (Pam)
Cooking Oil
Salt & Pepper
Rice Packages (Flavor or Regular)
Any Cereals/Bars
*Please No Paper Goods

Please drop off all donations to our offices at 369 North Main Street in Marlborough, Connecticut. And if you would like more information on the Food Bank, please visit http://www.foodbankofmarlborough.org/.

The Hartford Courant Names Diversified Group a Winner of the Greater Hartford Region 2018 Top Workplaces Award

Diversified Group has been awarded a 2018 Top Workplaces honor by The Hartford Courant! The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by research partner Energage, LLC (formerly WorkplaceDynamics), a leading provider of technology-based employee engagement tools. The anonymous survey measures several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution and connection, just to name a few.

“Top Workplaces is more than just a recognition,” said Doug Claffey, CEO of Energage. “Our research shows organizations that earn the award attract better talent, experience lower turnover and are better equipped to deliver bottom-line results. Their leaders prioritize and carefully craft a healthy workplace culture that supports employee engagement.”

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be receiving this honor for the second year in a row,” stated Brooks Goodison, President of Diversified Group. “Every day our employees work closely with our clients and their plan members doing everything they can to help people make better healthcare decisions. To be able to foster an environment that these hard-working people are proud to be a part of is so rewarding.”

“Becoming a Top Workplace isn’t something organizations can buy,” Claffey said. “It’s an achievement organizations have worked for and a distinction that gives them a competitive advantage. It’s a big deal.”

Medicare D Credible Coverage Notices Due by October 15th

The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 implemented prescription drug coverage under Medicare (Medicare D), requiring all employers that offer prescription drug benefits to provide an annual notice of Medicare open enrollment. The notice must go to all Medicare eligible plan participants and qualified beneficiaries before October 15th each year. The notice requirement applies to all employers offering prescription drug benefits regardless of size, whether fully-insured or self-funded, or regardless of ACA grandfathered status. Notification must go to all Medicare eligible plan participants, including active employees and their dependents, retirees and COBRA participants. For most employers, it is easier to issue the notice to all participants as a blanket notice than to identify Medicare eligible employees.

The notice requires that the plan sponsor first determine if their plan offers creditable coverage (meaning it is on average at least as comprehensive as Medicare D coverage), or non-creditable. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides a simple process to determine whether prescription drug coverage is creditable or not. Once that determination is made, CMS provides model notices to send to participants in both English and Spanish. Notices may be sent separately, included as part of open enrollment or other benefit related materials, or electronically as long as the DOL’s rules on electronic delivery are followed.

Additionally, all plan sponsors are required to notify CMS within 60 days of the start of each plan year as to whether or not their prescription drug plan is creditable or not creditable. This notification is done online at CMS here.

For Diversified Group clients who have elected to have Diversified Group handle your Medicare D notices, DG will determine if the plan is considered creditable or not and will then send the notice either to the client or directly to the plan participant depending upon which service was elected.