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What are the ICHRA plan document requirements?

ICHRA • May 3, 2023 at 10:14 AM • Written by: Elizabeth Walker

The individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) allows employers to provide a health benefit in which they can reimburse their employees, tax-free, for an individual health insurance plan’s monthly premiums and other out-of-pocket costs. It allows employers to design a health benefit that fits their employees’ needs.

Understanding ICHRA requirements is vital to your benefit plan staying compliant. One of the first steps in setting up an ICHRA is to create formal plan documents required by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the IRS.

In this article, we’ll go over why your organization needs ICHRA plan documents, what they must include, and the options you have to create them, including using an HRA administration software solution like PeopleKeep.

Check out our guide on how to self-administer an ICHRA

What is an individual coverage HRA (ICHRA)?

An ICHRA is a health benefit for businesses of all sizes. With it, employers can reimburse their employees for medical expenses, such as individual health insurance premiums and all out-of-pocket costs outlined in IRS Publication 502.

Because reimbursements to employees are tax-free, organizations leveraging an ICHRA will receive similar tax benefits to those received by employees enrolled in traditional group health plans.

Setting up an ICHRA is easy. The employer sets a monthly fixed allowance for each employee. After attestation of individual health plan coverage, employees spend that money on eligible healthcare expenses and submit proof of the expense to their benefit administrator.

After the documentation is approved, the employer reimburses the employee up to their allowance amount.

There are no caps on how much money the employer can offer through their ICHRA, and they also have certain flexibility on eligibility. For example, employers can decide eligibility for coverage based on employee classes and set different allowances for employees in different classes.

There are 11 employee classes, including:

  1. Full-time employees
  2. Part-time employees
  3. Salaried employees
  4. Hourly employees
  5. Seasonal employees
  6. Temporary employees working for a staffing firm
  7. Employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement
  8. Employees in a waiting period
  9. Foreign employees who work abroad
  10. Employees based in different locations, according to rating areas
  11. A combination of two or more of the above classes

Note: With PeopleKeep, only the full-time, part-time, seasonal, salaried, non-salaried, and state-based classes are available.

Even better, an ICHRA can be offered as a stand-alone health benefit or alongside group health insurance. However, no employee can be offered a group health insurance plan and an ICHRA—they can only be offered one or the other.

Why your organization needs ICHRA plan documents

Because HRAs are considered group health plans by the federal government, an ICHRA is subject to ERISA. ERISA Section 402 states that every employee benefit plan must be “established and maintained pursuant to a written instrument,” or plan document. ERISA also requires the organization to make the document available to employees and their families.

Plan sponsors, typically the employer, must also create a summary plan document (SPD), which summarizes the whole document to participants. While the plan document is written in a legal manner, the SPD must be written so the average plan participant can understand it clearly.

To assist with the drafting of documents, ERISA § 2520.102-31 outlines what the SPD should include, including participants’ benefits, rights, and obligations under the plan.

There are no specific penalties for failing to meet these requirements, but an employer will be subject to IRS fines if ICHRA participants ask to see the plan document and the employer doesn’t produce it.

Additionally, the employer could receive more fines if it doesn’t deliver the SPD to participants within 120 days of the ICHRA’s creation. For new participants in an existing ICHRA, employers have 90 days to provide the SPD.

Ten items your ICHRA plan documents must include

ERISA outlines several items every legal plan document must include. However, there are additional items relating to the ICHRA that businesses should also include as a best practice.

Below we explain in detail the ten items your ICHRA plan documents should include and if they’re an ERISA requirement.

1. Named fiduciaries and plan administrators and their responsibilities

The ICHRA plan documents must name one or more fiduciaries. These named fiduciaries have the authority to control and manage how the ICHRA is administered.

By being named in plan documents, these individuals agree to accept fiduciary duty for ICHRA participants. This means they’ll act solely in the best interest of plan participants and pay only reasonable medical expenses.

The plan document should also name a plan administrator for the ICHRA and specify the administrator’s powers.

Potential plan administrator powers include:

  • Interpreting the plan
  • Designing ICHRA participant forms
  • Communicating the ICHRA to participants
  • Signing plan administration documents
  • Maintaining relevant plan data
  • Appointing people to assist in plan administration services

Generally, the company is named as the fiduciary and plan administrator.

2. Eligibility requirements for the ICHRA

The plan document should outline ICHRA participant eligibility requirements.

Under the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services proposal, all participants must be covered by individual health insurance to participate in the ICHRA. Beyond that, the employer can structure eligibility according to the 11 employee classes defined above.

The spouses and dependents of eligible employees can also participate in the ICHRA.

3. Effective dates of participation

The plan document should define the effective dates of participation for employees eligible for the ICHRA. These dates specify whether the business imposes a waiting period on employees.

Employers can choose an effective date as early as the employee’s start date or as late as 90 days after their date of hire.

4. Description of benefits provided and excluded

The plan document should include which out-of-pocket expenses are and aren’t eligible for reimbursement through the ICHRA.

According to guidelines, the ICHRA can reimburse eligible expenses listed in IRS Section 213(d) as “medical care.” The employer can make exclusions but should provide an itemized list in the plan document to clarify those exclusions.

In this section of the legal document, employers should also specify monthly allowance amounts available to employees according to any of the 11 employee classes the employer sets.

5. How the ICHRA is funded and how it makes payments

The plan document must specify how the company makes payments to and from the ICHRA.

This will largely depend on how the organization administers the benefit plan. There’s no requirement that an ICHRA must be pre-funded, but some third-party administrators (TPAs) may require this.

Generally, funds don’t leave the organization until the employee’s expense is verified and approved for reimbursement.

6. Claims procedures

The plan document must create and follow reasonable procedures relating to the claims process. With an ICHRA, a “claim” is a reimbursement request from a participant.

To comply with ERISA requirements, ICHRA plan documents must create procedures governing:

  • How the claims for reimbursement are filed
  • How the administrator will notify participants of claim processes and decisions
  • How the business will handle appeals of denied claims

Business owners have some freedom in crafting these procedures, but ERISA offers some specific guidelines.

7. HIPAA privacy officers and rules regarding protected health information (PHI)

If the ICHRA is being offered to an organization with fewer than 50 full-time employees, it isn’t required to comply with most HIPAA rules.

However, it’s still subject to the HIPAA Privacy Rules. These rules control the conditions under which the ICHRA can share protected health information (PHI) with the company.

To comply with these requirements, the plan document should designate HIPAA privacy officers. This group, or individuals, will be exposed to participants’ PHI and are almost always the plan administrator.

The plan documents should also outline rules regulating the use and disclosure of PHI according to HIPAA Privacy Rules. Finally, it should address PHI protection, per HIPAA Security Rules2.

If an ICHRA is being offered to businesses with more than 50 employees, it needs to address all other sections of HIPAA as well.

8. Information on federal mandates

The plan document must address how the ICHRA behaves concerning certain federal mandates, including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). How the ICHRA responds to these mandates largely depends on the organization's size.

9. The procedure for amending the plan

The plan document must outline steps the organization will take if it decides to amend the plan. These steps include naming individuals who have the authority to amend the plan and the process the business will take in notifying employees of a “material amendment” to the plan.

ERISA requires that businesses notify participants no later than 210 days after the close of the plan year during which the amendment was made. However, if the amendment “materially reduces” the ICHRA’s benefits or services, the business must notify participants within 60 days.

10. The procedure for plan termination

The plan document should detail the business’s and participants’ rights if the company decides to terminate the ICHRA. This includes specifying how plan assets will be handled.

Options for creating ICHRA plan documents

Creating ICHRA plan documents isn’t a task employers should take lightly. These documents must follow all ERISA and IRS requirements exactly, making it easy for novices to be non-compliant. If the documents are challenged, the business may face daily penalties of $100 per employee until they’re corrected.

Many small businesses contract with an attorney to draft the plan documents and SPDs to avoid this problem. However, the estimated cost for this convenience can often exceed $2,000. Even prewritten plan documents could cost at least $200.

Additionally, neither of these services provide free plan amendment procedures. The best option to avoid these difficulties is by working with an HRA administration platform like PeopleKeep.

PeopleKeep provides customers with personalized plan documents as well as free and immediate plan amendments. We allow employers to administer their HRA online, document reimbursements, and leverage tools to ensure employers remain compliant with federal and state rules so they can maintain control of their time and money.

Conclusion

Adding an ICHRA to your benefits packages is a great perk. But meeting plan document requirements can be a difficult task. Several complicated regulations must be met, and if you’re out of compliance, you could face penalties until you correct the errors.

If keeping up with changing regulations sounds overwhelming, use a benefits administration software like PeopleKeep! We take care of the time-consuming tasks of managing your ICHRA, so you don’t have to. If you’re ready to get started, schedule a call, and we’ll take it from there.

This article was originally published on May 7, 2019. It was last updated on May 3, 2023.

1. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/2520.102-3

2. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/index.html

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Elizabeth Walker

Elizabeth Walker is a content marketing specialist at PeopleKeep. She has worked for the company since April 2021. Elizabeth has been a writer for more than 20 years and has written several poems and short stories, in addition to publishing two children’s books in 2019 and 2021. Her background as a musician and love of the arts continues to inspire her writing and strengthens her ability to be creative.