News

When Inc. Magazine announced its prestigious Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies list recently, one brand that repeated on the list in 2015 earned an increasingly uncommon added distinction. 

With growth enhanced by interest in its new ACA technologies and administration applications, Insurance Applications Group (IAG) — whose award-winning Essential StaffCARE product makes it the largest provider of ACA-compliant health plans and supplemental employee benefits to the staffing industry — was named to the 2015 Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the fifth consecutive year. In doing so, IAG earned a place on Inc.’s Honor Roll — a distinction fewer than 18% of honorees achieve. It also marked IAG’s appearance on the list for the sixth time in seven years.

“We are thrilled to be recognized again as one of America’s fastest growing companies,” stated J. Marshall Dye, IAG’s CEO. “As one of very few firms nationally to make the Inc. 5000 Honor Roll, we dedicate this recognition to the commitment and hard work of our IAG team, and to the successful partnerships that we have created with our staffing industry clients and insurance industry colleagues.”

The Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2011 through 2014. To qualify, companies must be U.S. based and privately held, while meeting strict financial reporting requirements.

The magazine surveys private America’s independent businesses to take a comprehensive snapshot of that critical part of the economy. Participating companies vary widely in their focus, ranging from digital media companies, retailers and food and beverage companies to advanced manufacturers, telecommunications and technology businesses.

“We attribute IAG’s growth and success to our ongoing development of advanced technology solutions and ACA-compliant insurance products,” said Dye. “Our focus is on leading edge processes that are grounded in the fundamentals which make the insurance industry great. Our mission is to help our customers manage and mitigate their exposure to the increasing costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, and to meet their corporate responsibility to provide quality benefits to employees and their families.”

Nearly 30 million businesses are registered in the United States and thus eligible for consideration; past honorees have included Under Armour, Visa, Intuit, Timberland, Publix, Patagonia and Zappos.com.

 And — of course — IAG.

Employers subject to the employer shared responsibility provision under section 4980H of the Affordable Care Act are required to provide full time employees and the IRS with year-end reports regarding Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage for 2015.  As with many aspects of the ACA, the rules regarding this reporting are complex and can be confusing.

To assist you, ESC and our third-party administrator PAI have prepared a helpful bulletin summarizing requirements and providing you with other helpful links.  Click here to review that bulletin. 

PAI will begin providing the year-end information that you need to file your IRS 1094 and 1095 reports in December 2015 and early 2016.  This information will be delivered via the secure FTP folder directory provided to you, and an email notice will also be sent alerting you when the information has been posted.

We also understand that many software providers to the industry are enhancing system capabilities to assist in preparing these reports.  Several ESC strategic partners are developing processes enabling you to upload information into their system to automate reporting and generate the required IRS forms 1094 and 1095.  You can check with your software provider to learn what measures they are taking in this regard.

For much more detail on Forms 1094 and 1095, the IRS also provides this helpful link.  Be sure to check it out if you have additional information requirements.

Please let us know if you have questions, and as always thank you for your business.

ESC Tip of the Month

Making the strategic decision to change your firm’s payroll vendor is never easy.  But once you do select a new provider, one simple email or phone call can save you weeks or even months of headaches and re-work.

To quote Ben Franklin, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Because ESC’s health and benefit plan administration is intricately tied to your firm’s payroll information, be sure to alert your ESC representative in advance of the new vendor’s full implementation of the system. 

By doing so, ESC can make sure that the systems are integrated and mapped appropriately for reporting and withholding purposes from the outset — rather than going back after the fact and incurring weeks of re-work and often significant cost in “curing” two systems that are not interfacing properly.

One call is all that it takes to avoid the problem!

ESC executives J. Marshall Dye, Aaron Lesher and Von Burba share the very latest in ACA strategies and new benefit plan options for 2016 during this critical webinar.  Learn the latest on the ACA marketplace, trending strategies, benefit and insurance products available, managing risk and ACA compliance and reporting. 

Click here to view PDF