From ever-changing coverage options to complex regulatory requirements, employee benefits administration presents myriads of challenges for plan managers and HR leaders. Also, organizations require a significant amount of upfront capital and enormous investments in technologies to better understand and explain the “whats, whys, and hows” of the offerings. The situation necessitates businesses to partner with experienced employee benefits administrators that can seamlessly direct and plan the day-to-day operations of group benefits programs while ensuring compliance with stringent regulations.

Enter Medcom Benefit Solutions.

For almost four decades, Medcom Benefit Solutions has maintained its leadership position in employee benefits administration and ERISA Compliance space. The company specializes in providing exceptional service and a variety of products that are designed to help employers meet the challenges of an ever-evolving workforce. More importantly, Medcom always believes in modifying and expanding the scope of its solutions in line with the rapidly changing regulatory landscape. In fact, it has designed a streamlined approach to regulatory compliance services, including Form 5500 Reporting, Wrap Documents, Non-Discrimination Testing, ERISA Compliance Plan Reviews, technical writing, and seminars. “Medcom has five different divisions, including Consumer- Driven Health Plans, COBRA Premium Billing, Affordable Care Act Reporting as well as Penalty Support, and HIPAA Privacy and Security consulting and assessments. All of our solutions are distributed exclusively through leading employee benefit consultants and brokers throughout the U.S.,” adds Michael Bracken, President, Medcom Benefit Solutions.

In an interaction with Manage HR, Bracken shares his insights into the unique value propositions of the company and how they help clients address all the benefit administration-related challenges.

Please give our readers insights into existing challenges in the market and how Medcom Benefit Solutions addresses them.

Many boutique consulting firms today are undergoing mergers and acquisitions. And this change on the administration level negatively impacts the existing relationships of the business by making it difficult for their broker-partners and employers to work with a new set of people and rules. As opposed to this, we always strive to offer a white glove treatment to clients—they can directly make a call and discuss their challenges with us. Also, the regulatory landscape is becoming more complicated every passing day. For example, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) has created a great deal of havoc, confusion, chaos among everybody. Our cross-functional teams play a vital role in guiding businesses through this complexity.
The team at Medcom holds years of experience in what they do. Over the years, all the team members have gained a comprehensive understanding of different laws and regulations—be it COBRA or the Affordable Healthcare Act. As a result, they can bring total solutions to the table to help clients address all their critical requirements. These experts and our inclination toward technology are the two key factors that differentiate us from the competitors.

Could you please share an instance of client success with us?

A client was facing a major issue when one of their acquisitions had not been administering COBRA at all. They also had not filed the 5,500 reports, which is an obligation under the department of labor for groups that have at least a hundred participants.

Engaging with the client, we enabled them to seamlessly conduct COBRA administration and back filings of 5500 reports. We also provided them the roadmap to complete the documentation to respond to the IRS regarding their penalty payment. Also, we’ll be working closely with them to further help them with acquisitions.

What does the future hold for your company?

A large percentage of our major competitors are acquiring other firms and have created a whole level of complexity, confusion, transition, conversions of systems, and lots of different things. As opposed to this, we have enjoyed organic growth over the years. We are also continuously investing in technology to further facilitate the customer journey. In fact, we are currently working in liaison with our tech partner to bring an innovative product. Also, we are striving to further up the ante of our compliance division—Medcom Bridge—to enable it to conduct different compliance projects in real-time. Further.

Further, we’re rolling out a brand-new technology platform for our ACA clients, ACA Connect. This will enable clients to handle automation more efficiently and view everything that we do for them in a real-time fashion. Another plan is to upgrade the COBRA administration and retiree billing into a cloud-based platform.