What Is Benefits Administration?

Benefits administration is the process of creating, managing, and maintaining an employee benefits program in your practice. Tasks include enrolling employees in your benefits program, verifying eligibility for benefits, and ensuring employees receive benefits such as paid time off. Office managers play a critical role in benefits administration. This process guarantees team members such as doctors, nurses, and physical therapists receive the correct benefits, as determined by the law or internal policies in your practice. 

Benefits administration confuses many office managers, but it brings multiple advantages to a healthcare practice like yours. Read on for a benefits administration definition and learn the benefits of using employee benefits software. 

Benefits Administration Definition

Benefits administration is a set of procedures, plans, and policies for creating, managing, and maintaining an employee benefits program in your practice. This process affects benefits for all employees, from surgeons to billing managers. 

Benefits administration involves many tasks, such as:

• Evaluating the current employee benefits program in your practice (if you have one).
• Creating a fair, legal, and transparent employee benefits program for all team members, such as physicians' assistants, dentists, optometrists, and veterinarians.
• Working with benefits suppliers and service providers (for example, healthcare insurance companies).
• Communicating your employee benefits program to all team members in your practice.

What Does the Benefits Administration Process Involve?

Benefits administration involves many tasks that facilitate your employee benefits program. One of these tasks is deciding on what benefits to include in your benefits package. The relevant employment legislation and the internal policies in your practice will determine the type (and scope) of benefits, which might include:

• Paid time off (PTO).
• Parental leave.
• Sick leave.
• 401Ks and other retirement plans.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Disability insurance.

For example, you might need to determine the amount or level of healthcare, dental, and vision insurance given to team members like doctors and dentists. Or decide on the amount of PTO provided to healthcare hires who recently joined your practice. 

Another task is creating and maintaining a database for benefits administration that lets you:

• Enroll team members in your benefits program.
• Determine timelines for enrollment.
• Ensure employees' eligibility for benefits (collecting identification documents, for example).
• Report changes in employees' circumstances that might affect eligibility for benefits.
• Respond to legislative changes or internal policies that impact benefits administration (FFCRA and other COVID-19-related changes, for example).
• Communicate specific benefit policies to team members (providing a group of nurse practitioners with health insurance documents, for example).
• Train office administrators in your practice to facilitate employee benefits correctly.

The right software automates many of the tasks associated with benefits administration. As a result, you can free up time and resources, reduce human error, and focus on other healthcare HR areas. 

Why Is Benefits Administration So Important in Healthcare HR?

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) regulates and enforces protections for healthcare employees. Failing to provide legally required benefits to team members in your practice could result in fines from the EBSA. You could also receive a penalty from the EBSA for not reporting benefits plan information correctly. 

Ultimately, you need to make sure your employee benefits program adheres to federal regulations, which can change. (For example, recent AB5 legislation in California that affects some independent contractors like locum physicians.)

Did you know that we at HR for Health monitor all the specific laws and regulations that affect your practice? If you have questions about compliance issues, please reach out to us. Schedule a call, call (877) 779-4747, or email compliance@hrforhealth.com now to learn more.