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Get the most out of your COBRA Administration tools with these necessary features
We know what you’re thinking: what’s to love about a 30+ year old law that has employer’s scrambling to hit the post office with freshly printed notices and head out to the bank to make manual deposits? Unless that routine involves a scenic drive through the countryside, there are better options available.
For anyone out there who wants to control and manage the COBRA admin process with minimal effort and maximum joy, here are the five features to look for in the COBRA software of your dreams:
1. A Single Online Portal That’s Safe and Secure
It goes without saying that you need a single place to manage everything related to COBRA so it must always be accessible and easy to navigate at any time. Make sure that the online portal is secure with features such as two-factor authentication so that qualifying participants personal health information (PHI) is kept safe. You should also be able to see an entire history of all recent transactions, review COBRA timelines, and keep track of all financials associated with COBRA.
2. The Ability to Communicate Between Employers, Carriers, and Employees
You’ve got more important things to do than worry about COBRA communications that have to take place. Managing communications, even to just one of your employee’s dependents, means that you’ve got to keep on top of sending notices, invoices, and much more! This is important for following compliance with COBRA regulations and avoiding those hefty fines!
Having the control of those communications at your fingertips will save your benefits administrator time and effort tracking all of this information. Yes, this also means sending those pesky initial notices to keep you compliant.
3. Auditing
Speaking of compliancy, your COBRA software should give you peace of mind. Why spend valuable time worrying about whether all the important tasks that keep you compliant (such as sending out notices in a timely fashion) were completed on time when technology is on your side? Your COBRA software should track every action taken from within the system. Be sure that it can provide detailed information and reports about every participant, especially detailing when, how, and why any changes associated with an account were made.
4. The Money Movement
Having a clear picture of who owes a balance, premiums, admin fees, and other important financial information should be easy! Benefits administrators aren’t certified accountants and your accounting department has more important things to worry about other than benefit information. Having access to financial information should be something your CORBA software includes.
On top of this, those previously mentioned auditing features should be built-in to your COBRA software so that not only are premiums, balances, etc. available for you to view from within the software – they’re also kept as records. This is important for maintaining legal compliance and preventing scenarios where administrators have to figure out exactly how much money movement has taken place during a given period.
5. Proactive Monitoring
Are you prepared to conduct an internal checklist of all the things you have to look out for and remember? A good COBRA software will be proactive to keep you compliant, up-to-date with payment information, and aware of any upcoming changes. That will allow you to stop reacting to all of the COBRA needs as they arise that take you away from other important daily tasks.
Software that tracks your data changes and responds to various events in your employee ecosystem will act like an assistant that can take care of every detail for you. With technology getting better every day, it’s easier to find a solution to help manage COBRA tasks for benefits administrators.
If you’re an employer, talk to your payroll provider about options that may be available for you because the right COBRA software is worth investing in.
If you have any questions or are interested in learning more about COBRA administration software, we’d love to discuss how we can help your payroll company implement this solution. You can download our Product Guide or Case Study and also reach out to us to schedule a DEMO.
