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ACA Compliance Made Simple with Todd Hurst: Reducing Risk and Supporting Your Workforce
9 Plays1 month ago
Most companies think of ACA compliance as a back-office obligation but in reality, it’s a high-stakes, people-impacting system that touches everything from cost control to employee trust.
In this episode of MustardHub Voices: Behind the Build, Curtis Forbes sits down with Todd Hurst, Head of ACA Sales at Equifax Workforce Solutions, to unpack why ACA compliance remains a persistent challenge more than a decade after its introduction and what employers are still getting wrong.
Drawing on over 20 years in healthcare and workforce solutions, Todd breaks down the hidden complexity behind benefits administration, from fluctuating employee hours to the ripple effects of inaccurate data and manual processes. He explains why ACA isn’t just about year-end forms, but a year-round system that requires precision, consistency, and proactive management.
They explore how overwhelmed HR teams - especially in small and mid-sized organizations - struggle to keep up with compliance demands, and how even minor inaccuracies can surface years later in the form of IRS penalties. Todd also shares how data-driven tools are helping organizations move beyond compliance to improve financial efficiency, benefits strategy, and overall employee experience.
The conversation highlights the human side of compliance, emphasizing how benefits offerings, accuracy, and communication directly influence employee perception, retention, and trust. Todd also offers a forward-looking perspective on how AI and automation may reshape compliance workflows, helping teams identify risk faster and operate more efficiently.
This episode is a must-watch for HR leaders, founders, and operators looking to simplify ACA compliance, reduce risk, and turn a traditionally reactive process into a strategic advantage.
About Todd Hurst:
Todd Hurst is Head of ACA Sales at Equifax Workforce Solutions, bringing more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Over the course of his career, Todd has held roles spanning Benefits Administration, Product Development, Sales, and Project and Account Management. His passion is helping clients save time managing their workforce against ACA regulations, while driving meaningful risk mitigation.
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Transcript
Introduction to Mustard Hub: Voices Behind the Build
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello again, everyone. It's another installment of Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. In these episodes, I sit down with the people building, backing, and running better workplaces. I'm your host, Curtis Forbes, and my guest today is Todd Hurst.
Todd Hurst's Background in Healthcare and ACA
00:00:19
Speaker
Todd is head of ACA sales at Equifax Workforce Solutions, bringing more than 20 years experience in the healthcare industry. And over the course of his career, Todd has held role spanning benefits administration, product development, sales, project and account management.
00:00:35
Speaker
His passion is helping clients save time managing their workforce against ACA regulations while driving meaningful risk mitigation. Welcome
Balancing Work with Musical Passion
00:00:44
Speaker
to Behind the Build. Thanks for joining me, Todd.
00:00:46
Speaker
Thanks for having me, Curtis. That's a very exciting introduction, isn't it Yeah, I know. it's Hearing yourself back always makes it, you know, when when I hear myself, I'm like, really? Yeah, I guess I did do all those things. That's ah's kind of a little, it's and yet I still have imposter syndrome like everyone else. So, yeah.
00:01:04
Speaker
But happens one thing you did not list in there, and this is important to me, so we're going to jump into it right away. ah You also play music. Tell me what you play. Tell me about your gigs over the weekend. I'm going to live vicariously through you right now before we jump into all the hard stuff.
00:01:22
Speaker
Sure. Sounds good. Yes. i I play guitar and I sing. And mostly kind of, I guess, market myself as more of a country musician, but love all kinds of music. So generally, playing little breweries or bars where we're playing a little bit of country and a little bit of rock and roll, as cliche as that sounds. Yeah. But I've been doing that now for, I think, pretty consistently for, I think I'm going on 12 to 13, 14 years now. Nice. ah Where, yeah, just, you know, maybe two, three times a month, nothing crazy. Just get away and and go play some music. Is this Equifax family band or is this outside? This is not.
00:02:05
Speaker
This is outside of Equifax. Yeah, this is this is not like ah Partridge family reboot or anything like that. This is just me and some you know a buddy or two that we just we like to play. And it's it's just fun to get away and and and do something different. So, yeah.
00:02:23
Speaker
I love that. The weekend was good. we we had i ah double didn't double book, but we had two shows on Saturday. And so that's when you really get that rush where like you finish the first show and then you got pack up real quick and head down the road to the next show and get ready for that. But it was fun.
00:02:41
Speaker
It's exhausting. I love that. A little country and a little rock and roll. I grew up out in West Texas, so I feel my personal personality is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. And yet I spent 15 years playing jazz, so I cannot figure out where...
00:02:52
Speaker
Where that all came from. um But very cool.
Todd's Journey into Healthcare Industry
00:02:56
Speaker
you know you You've spent more than two decades in the healthcare care industry across you know all these things that we right that we mentioned. Benefits admin, product development, sales, you know account management.
00:03:11
Speaker
It's a really broad range. so It is. how yeah give me Give me the timeline. How did you end up in this space? And and ultimately... What kept you here?
00:03:24
Speaker
Sure. You know, I've, I guess for the past 20 plus years, I've kind of been in the mindset of, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, oh um which has kind of led me across all these roles.
00:03:36
Speaker
But really what where it first started was i had moved, I'm in Minnesota and I'd moved here. And as I was preparing to move here in 2005, was looking for, for a job out of college and Landed on through a referral from someone, landed at a third party administrator for benefits.
00:03:59
Speaker
And that's kind of what got me into healthcare. care i didn't I didn't go to school for it. I went to school for computer programming and just kind of landed into this role where I started to realize that healthcare care is pretty cool.
00:04:13
Speaker
And the way that it works, it's not everyone's favorite. It's not everyone's cup of tea. There are challenges with the industry. But it's cool in the sense of you have decisions being made or you know an an employee elects their benefits.
00:04:28
Speaker
And then there's so much stuff that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that they're covered, that their dependents are covered, that there's compliance for the employer, for the employee and all the billing processes that happen. um So, you know, not again, not everybody's favorite topic at family dinner um or at the holidays, but it's it's just very interesting how everything goes and and operates around it. So that's kind of what caught my attention.
00:04:54
Speaker
And and then from there, I just I. kind of realized like this is a space to be in because you can make a difference. ah You can make a change no matter where you are. Right. So there's the obvious changes of Dr. Nurse, et cetera, of being like boots on the ground.
00:05:10
Speaker
But then there's also the behind the scenes where you can help an employer help their employees or help the employer, you know, become more efficient, save money and make things a little, little bit cost friendly.
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, there it it it is a very complicated ecosystem of participants. And right all all cogs in the wheel, right, all have to be moving in order for sort of just the greater ecosystem to be functioning the way it's designed to function. Right.
00:05:43
Speaker
ah And and i've I certainly don't position myself as somebody who who understands how that ecosystem works, um at least how it works well. But i'm I'm really kind of curious, you know, because you described a little bit about this. And um are there parts that you parts of it that you find more fascinating than others? Like when you had mentioned that when you – understood it and you learned about it, you realized, well, this is this is a place to be in because I could make a difference. Which of those parts of this greater ecosystem I think was most impactful for you?
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah, ah I've never fully thought of that that, but I think what first comes to mind is where you can help, again, that employer or the employee, depending on where you're focused within your role, ah you can help them become better at what they're trying to accomplish within the healthcare practice. So,
00:06:42
Speaker
What are they trying to improve within their ah HR teams or within their messaging to the employees or as an employee? What are you trying to improve within your life to to just make it easier? um And so what's really drawn me to not only my current role, but some of my previous roles is that impact of, ah for example, building ah a tool, a decision-making tool for employees that have back pain and they don't know what to do.
00:07:10
Speaker
So how severe is the back pain? What have you done? what have you what you know Have you taken Advil? How long have you been taking Advil? Based on those responses, here's what your next steps look like. um So being a part of that was pretty cool.
00:07:23
Speaker
And then the work I'm doing now is from an employer standpoint, How can we help the employer navigate complex regulations with so many offerings out there to make sure that the employer is compliant while also ensuring that the employee is getting affordable health care coverage to take care of themselves and their family?
00:07:45
Speaker
So I think it's having that impact kind of behind the scenes that really drives me and motivates me to to the roles. I feel like most people land in sales like one of two ways, right? They either like find something that they really, really believe in or they find a problem that they can't ignore. And I'm curious, maybe not everybody would agree with that particular, you know, ah you know, how I've, I guess, simplified it like that. But like, I'm just kind of curious, was it one of those things for, for you?
00:08:23
Speaker
um Well, you mentioned imposter syndrome earlier. um And this is where that comes in for me. I'm not classically trained in sales, as I like to say. um i landed in sales, I think, probably because i was pretty passionate and and very passionate about a product that we were offering.
00:08:44
Speaker
And I would go on sales calls and kind of act as the, okay, once the sales process is done, you're then going to work with Todd's team and they're going to help you implement the the platform and guide you along the way over the next one, three, five, 10 years as you're using it.
00:09:04
Speaker
And someone came up to me and said, You know a lot about the product. You're passionate about it. You can really bring it to the market. I want to move you from here, from client management over into sales.
00:09:18
Speaker
um And that's kind of how I landed. And then here I am several years later. It's. I think it's been that passion for for what we're offering to the clients that just, it motivates me every day to motivate my team and to get better at what we're doing ah to sell our product and and get it into the client's hands so that their lives can be easier.
00:09:40
Speaker
I love that.
Equifax Workforce Solutions: Supporting Employers
00:09:41
Speaker
Yeah. So now you're leading, you're leading ACA sales at Equifax Workforce Solutions, right? So, yeah so let's make sure everybody i mean knows, right? For those who who aren't familiar, what does Equifax Workforce Solutions actually do, right? And then where does ACA sort of fit into that picture?
00:09:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's the number one question I get asked every time I go somewhere. So you're ready for it. Someone says, who do you work for? And I say, Equifax. And they go, fix my credit.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah. And my my cheeky response is always, only you can fix your credit score. ah But the reality is, is everyone knows Equifax from the credit bureau. And we're much more than that. And so what Equifax Workforce Solutions is, is we are really there to support employers on the on three levels of their employees, onboarding, and then those that are active employments or employees, and then the offboarding.
00:10:38
Speaker
So we focus on, for example, I-9s, making sure I-9s are accurate and compliant and complete to help employers reduce the amount or the the risk ah with I-9s.
00:10:51
Speaker
And then on the back end, for example, for we manage unemployment claims. And in the middle is where I sit. So from an Affordable Care Act standpoint, we partner with employers to help their active employees. And we have a couple other products that fall in there. But the the ACA is is really there to help the employers manage the regulatory piece of the Affordable Care Act, the employer mandate side of it.
00:11:19
Speaker
to make sure that they're measuring their employees' hours, offering them benefits when they're required by the regulation, and then mitigating that risk throughout the year and at the end of the year as they have to do all of their tax filings.
00:11:31
Speaker
um So a lot of times I say Affordable Care Act or ACA. Someone says, I don't know what that is. ah reference Obamacare. Sometimes they know then, or I'll have to reference 1095, 1094 forms.
00:11:43
Speaker
And that's when the light bulb goes off and they they realize kind of That's what we support when you, when you reference the form is when the light bulb goes off. yeah yeah Yeah. And that's when, that's when I know that maybe the person I'm talking to might need a little bit more education on what the ACA is because it's so much more than just those forms that show up at the end, end of the year. And, and that's what a lot of people don't, don't realize about it, uh, is that it's, it's, it goes much deeper than that.
00:12:07
Speaker
Let's talk about that. I mean, for for for any of those who might be kind of fuzzy on it, like, what is ACA? why is it Why is it such a heavy lift for employers, like more than a decade after it was signed into law?
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's ah that's a great way to put it is a heavy lift after yeah being around for 10 years, right? So what what employers need to know is really that the the ACA is is really focused on getting employees that generally do not get offered benefits, making sure that they're offered benefits that cover certain ah levels of care, right? So you have to meet regulations on what plan you're offering. They have to be affordable or else that employee can go out to the federal marketplace. So why does the employer care and why is it still, again, that heavy lift now?
00:13:02
Speaker
it's a very It can be a very manual process and it can still be very complex, especially if you have a a workforce that ah is variable, a lot of part-time people that, restaurant retail, for example, right? If you've if you've got people that maybe one week they work 40 hours and the next they work 25,
00:13:20
Speaker
How does that, you know, you you have to do those calculations. So you need to have a way and a process and a tool to make sure that you're monitoring those employees so that when they become eligible, you're offering them those benefits.
00:13:33
Speaker
And I think that's the heavy lift to it. And then, of course, the other pieces throughout the year, you want to be managing that, ah you know, the the offerings and also the compliance aspect of it.
00:13:46
Speaker
So that at the end of the year, when you're dealing with W-2s for tax season, right, and moving into a new calendar year, uh and and all the changes that come with that and benefits you don't have to sit there and spend hours upon hours looking at those 1095 forms that i talked about earlier making sure that they're accurate and what it all boils down to is the irs has the ability to ah penalize employers that are not managing their aca regulations
00:14:17
Speaker
accurately or completely. And you don't want the IRS to kind of ah get your name, so to speak, and have you on their radar. So that's where we come in and help out. We want to help the employer make sure they're compliant, which downstream also helps the employee get you know affordable benefits and and make sure that they're covered in the healthcare space.
00:14:39
Speaker
when When a company like comes to you and says that managing this compliance is um you know is a headache, what Practically speaking, right? what What does that headache usually look like? Is it the is it a voluminous amount of of of paperwork? Is it like like you were talking about this sort of frontline or hourly workforce that may fluctuate, right, in in hours that can ultimately influence eligibility?
00:15:12
Speaker
um What are the things that you see people are struggling with the most? Yeah. it it is It's paperwork, essentially. um That's kind of what it boils down to. And what we see is the HR teams, we all know HR teams have a lot going on.
00:15:32
Speaker
they it's They're not just focused on benefits, they're you know or at least medical benefits, right? You've got dental, vision, 401k. You've got leave of absences that you have to manage. And HR teams are generally pretty small. so What we see, and even with even with large organizations and down to like mom and pop shops, the HR teams become inundated with going, okay,
00:15:55
Speaker
Todd was hired on X date. We have to offering benefits here. Oh, no, wait. he's He left. Now he's come back. Do we have to offering benefits? What do we do?
00:16:07
Speaker
Or we hired him part time. Now he wants to move full time. How do we manage that? He's gone on leave of absence. How do we manage that piece? How does this all relate to when we need to offer him benefits and what benefits we need to offer him?
00:16:21
Speaker
And I think that's what really takes up a lot of HR time. and And what we hear a lot is, I just don't want to deal with this anymore. Even 10 years later, like some, some folks will go we understand it.
00:16:35
Speaker
We know how it should work. I just don't want to deal with it. um And, and that leads to a lot of, of where we come in to support. We have a great team that works with our clients.
00:16:47
Speaker
on a pretty much monthly basis, sometimes more, sometimes less, ah to kind of keep them on track, make sure they're doing what they need to do and and make sure they're compliant and ready for the end of the year.
00:16:57
Speaker
ah But then also it's it's that really that end of the year piece. If you think of the tax season for employers, W-2s have to be out by January 31st. These 1095 forms have to be out by March 2nd, generally speaking, depending on what day of the month or of the week that falls.
00:17:17
Speaker
But then as you kind of take it back a little bit, a 1-1 calendar year employer, so someone where everyone's in open enrollment for benefits starting January 1st, they're dealing with that in July. So they've got July through October where they're getting ready for open enrollment.
00:17:36
Speaker
Open enrollment happens in October, November. Then you have Thanksgiving. Then you have Christmas. And we all know what we're doing in December. We're either... uh kind of picking up the pieces from open enrollment if we're in hr and then we're dealing with christmas kind of but really everyone's dealing with christmas in the new year and then next thing you know it's january 5th and someone goes oh hey by the way now you have to have all these forms out on time they have to be compliant they have to be accurate and so when you kind of look at it in that lens
00:18:10
Speaker
Uh, employers, they just don't have time. They don't, they don't have patience and, and they want someone else to do with it or deal with it. It's, yeah it's better for them to just have someone, have an expert go trust us.
00:18:21
Speaker
yeah We've got it. You can focus on something else.
Challenges in ACA Compliance for Businesses
00:18:25
Speaker
Does this problem like scale with company size or do you feel like the smaller midsize businesses with a smaller HR bench are the ones that are carrying like a disproportionate burden?
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, I would say that the smaller mid-market, you know, kind of middle-sized employers generally have one, two, three people in their HR team trying to do everything.
00:18:50
Speaker
Yeah. So they are faced with more challenges. ah The larger corporations, larger companies, larger HR team, maybe someone that's more focused on benefits.
00:19:01
Speaker
yeah But even then, those benefits teams are dealing with medical dental vision, ah leave of absence, even if they just focus on that, they might be getting phone calls nonstop ah from employees asking questions or they have other things to deal with. So I think at the end of the day, it all kind of levels out as a you know in regards to the amount of work people do. But the the smaller, middle-sized employers are definitely hit harder with it.
00:19:28
Speaker
I think that, and and and all those things that you described, like all of the things that they have to think about and all those timelines and all the deadlines and all the paperwork, all those things are hard enough to handle. And that's assuming they do it all right.
00:19:46
Speaker
yeah So, so, so you see where I'm kind of actually going to go with that now is really kind of curious, like, what are like the most common compliance mistakes that they're making?
00:19:58
Speaker
Like, how often are those mistakes, things that they don't even know they're doing wrong, right? And then how, how easy is it to just, you know, to, to, to, you know, call it a mulligan and, and, and and easily do it over, do it over. Yeah.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think the common mistake is just making sure so within the Affordable Care Act regulations, you've got this 1095 form. it's got these codes on it yeah um so you know i think we've all looked at the form at least once over the last 10 years if we've received one and these codes tell a story so my form tells the story of what did the employer offer me did they offer me benefits or not and then did i enroll in them or not and if i didn't was it affordable um and so the employer has to make sure that those
00:20:50
Speaker
those codes each month. So so you got 12 months worth of codes on this form. The employer has to make sure that that is accurate and telling the right story. I think that's the biggest concern right out of the gate for employers is how do i make sure that I'm a 500 life employer? How do I make sure all 500 forms are correct and accurate and complete?
00:21:14
Speaker
Uh, now I'm 500,000 life employer. How am I making sure all of my forms are accurate and complete? I think that's what keeps people up at night the most and where the most time burden comes in.
00:21:27
Speaker
Um, if they get it wrong, if something's incomplete, I think that there is today, there is a ah pretty decent chance of, of a mulligan,
00:21:39
Speaker
kind of you know, you do, you do get it, you do get the opportunity. So, There is a requirement that all this data has to go to the IRS every year and you are able to correct forms or correct some of the data as you realize like, oh, this form should have said XYZ and it says ABC. So let's fix it.
00:22:01
Speaker
We'll send it back to the IRS. And then the IRS goes through and audits all of this every year. And with some of the things that have happened over the last several years, the IRS is behind on doing these audits.
00:22:15
Speaker
So right now, they're in calendar year ah tax filings for 2023, which were filed in calendar year 2024. Yeah. So as you're an employer, you might not have realized you did anything wrong or inaccurate. I don't want say wrong, but inaccurate.
00:22:33
Speaker
And you're sitting here in 2026, you're going, we're good. And all of a sudden you get a letter from the IRS s that says, actually you weren't. And so that's where it pays to be, to have that confidence that you know that everything's right out of the gate so that three years later you don't get a letter from the IRS. Now,
00:22:53
Speaker
generally the IRS can give you time to review it, to kind of give you a response, to potentially correct it. ah But there is, or there there was ah legislation passed that kind of removed that, ah we'll call it grace period, back in 2021. So the IRS is cracking down a little bit, but there is still that chance to kind of raise your hand and go,
00:23:18
Speaker
Sorry, it won't happen again. And the IRS will generally go, okay, we'll give you one more shot. I, you know, something I hear in a lot of conversations, whether we're talking about, you know, benefits, culture, you know,
00:23:34
Speaker
legacy processes, right? A lot lot of organizations, even when they know things aren't working, they just kind of stick to this familiar, you know, thing, the familiar process, right, that they know anyways. And so I'm curious, why is it so hard for a lot of orgs to like let go of a manual or a legacy process, right? Even when it's clearly creating more work.
00:24:01
Speaker
And like when you're in conversations with a leader who's maybe resistant to change, like how do you get past the like, we've always done it this way, you know, wall, what what actually moves them?
00:24:18
Speaker
Oh, that's, isn't that the million dollar question, right? I, it's, uh, mean, I always talk about. flo can Can you tell a story? I mean, you don't have to name any names here. I'm just kind of curious about like when, uh, you know, some, I would imagine you work with some larger clients, you know, when they finally, like you help them see the aha moment, they make a huge shift and now there's like an enormous difference, right? We've, we talked about making the impact, right? Mm-hmm.
00:24:43
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. we've We've had a couple, well, we've had several clients, it's I'd say more than just a couple, ah where we've been able to show them the value of let us do it. It's a small price to let us do it.
00:24:58
Speaker
You've got the expertise. We'll support you. you know you'll You'll know that every all the boxes are getting checked, right? Go do something else. go Go enjoy that weekend in January where you normally spend 20 to 30 hours auditing data.
00:25:17
Speaker
ah Just have that weekend off. And it it does take a little bit. And generally, the person that's responsible for doing it is the one that doesn't want to do the change.
00:25:28
Speaker
ah they they don't They don't want to let go of it. And that's that's understandable because there's a greater fear that if I let this go, you know, what's my what what um what's my role here now? um And it's always, i always let my team know, and we've done this for a long time, to let them know it's not about replacing what they're doing in in in regards to kind of the day-to-day operations, but it's reducing the amount of time they're spending on it. They're still a part of the process.
00:25:58
Speaker
They still have to you know review things and sign off on things, but we're just helping them get from point A to point B faster. And when you put it that way, I think everyone in leadership realizes it and all the day-to-day folks realize that it would be nice to have that weekend off or it would be nice to leave the office at at four o'clock on a Friday or three o'clock on a Friday before filing season deadline instead of 6 p.m. So it's it's really all about making it about
00:26:30
Speaker
the betterment for the HR team and how it just, it will make their lives easier. um and we we We do that with, you know, again, you don't have to work that weekend or if you do this on your own, here's what your out here's what your output is, here's what our output is, yeah let's compare notes and see where we can make you more efficient and more accurate.
00:26:54
Speaker
would also think like, You know, the the the doomsday scenario, right, that you sort of brought up, you know, with the IRS calling, i imagine that there's data out there to maybe show that these are common mistakes. It's happening this percentage of the time. It's costing organizations this amount per person. And so you can actually really quantify even the financial impact of working with an expert in this space to to do it the way that you do it.
00:27:25
Speaker
um Yeah, not necessarily a question, just sort of ah a thought in my in my mind. I am curious, though. So one thing I really like, I like that you know Equifax Workforce Solutions right positions itself as ah what is it people people-driven, data-powered. It's one of my favorites. I really like this. cause I actually feel like in a lot of ways it applies to what we do. So very much a big fan of the of the tagline.
00:27:52
Speaker
But what does it mean in the context of like ACA and compliance work, right? What does data do for employers that the that the manual processes can't? Like, how do you use it?
00:28:05
Speaker
Yeah, we use the data to help them understand really what not only what their medical benefits, it's that's the main focus, right, is it's not just what is the compliance for this year.
00:28:20
Speaker
It's also how can you as an employer improve in the future? So how can you look at your medical benefits as a true benefit to your employees and to your organization?
00:28:33
Speaker
So the data that we get from the employers helps us with keeping them compliant, making sure employees are are offered benefits when they should be offered benefits. But it also helps us go, hey you've got people enrolling in this plan more than this other plan over here that could reduce your cost as well as their costs.
00:28:55
Speaker
So maybe we should look at that and you know, talk internally about how you could maybe shift your employees to a different plan or a different coverage level or make sure that they're seeing this offering or this benefit out there. And that's really kind of how I think we take the data and maybe flip it to instead of being just compliance, we're also helping the employer improve their processes to help their employees and of live a better life. um
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's not just operational efficiency, it's financial efficiency. Absolutely. Also, um, Which, I mean, is a big deal, right? We all want to be spending money more efficiently. Yes, in in benefits. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Because, i mean, you know, people is always going to be the biggest cost center in any organization, right? And benefits are usually, I don't necessarily count them in pay, right? Payroll is always the biggest cost center. Benefits is not a far second, right? And when it comes to ACA specifically, though, I mean,
00:30:02
Speaker
um what What are some downstream risks when the data is incomplete or inaccurate, right? Or if it's you know siloed across systems. Yeah.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah, with the data, a lot of times it's it's going to be that doomsday issue of a call from the IRS or ah a letter from the IRS. No one wants to receive that certified envelope. um that That is really where the importance of data accuracy comes into play in our space.
00:30:33
Speaker
ah That's going to allow the employer to stay off the radar and it's going to help them also downstream to just be more efficient with the filings and the regulatory pieces every year to have that data accuracy and and that complete data, making sure that it's all living in one space and that the checks and balances are in. And as this evolves, ah the Affordable Care Act, you know again, you've mentioned it's been around for 10 years.
00:31:00
Speaker
Haven't seen a lot of movement. There have been some changes here and there. ah We saw ah one of the bigger regulatory changes back in December of 2024. But then as this starts to evolve, as healthcare evolves, ah I think we're going to see more changes that having good data is going to become very key in you know the next probably two to five years.
00:31:24
Speaker
Are there other ways that the that the data and tools that ah that you know that Equifax provides you know give HR teams broader visibility into their workforce? like Things maybe leaders didn't expect when they when they came in for help with ACA, but now they're seeing you know ah other things. Or is it solely focused you know just on on that one specific area and category?
00:31:52
Speaker
No, I think with with the data that Equifax brings in in general, we're able to, ah again, utilize that to help the employer with all aspects of the HR space.
00:32:07
Speaker
ah There's you know improving your onboarding practices and automating applications. uh processes to where you know with our technology someone can fill out their i9 at a kiosk or electronically and just have a quick face-to-face meeting with someone and wrap up their i9 process quickly so the data has allowed us to Work with employers to again ensure that what how they're doing their practices is saving them time and money and making it a better experience for their employee because as you mentioned, ah you know retention is key.
00:32:49
Speaker
yeah right Making sure that that your employees ah love what they do, but also that the stuff that they have to do on the side is not cumbersome and time consuming. is key. So that's where we leverage the data to help the employers make it easier for the employee and and bring that retention up.
00:33:08
Speaker
Let's lean into that
Maintaining the Human Element in Compliance
00:33:09
Speaker
a little bit, right? because Because there's a tendency to think that this compliance work is just purely administrative. Forms, deadlines, you know, risk, all that stuff.
00:33:18
Speaker
But it touches people, like real people, employees, right? Their their coverage, their eligibility, their um ah their financial security. So how do you help employers kind of keep the human in in the process? Right.
00:33:36
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. It's, it does come down to, i think, ultimately, what kind of ah offering are you providing to your employee? And how is that showing the employee that you, the employer, are taking care of them?
00:33:52
Speaker
So from a ACA standpoint, making sure that the employees that need to be offered benefits are getting offered benefits timely and it's a good benefit.
00:34:03
Speaker
It's not just here's a benefit for you to enroll in if you want to, but it's pretty expensive and you're not really getting great coverage. it's ah it It covers everything that the employee needs.
00:34:15
Speaker
um And of course, there's regulations around that, right? That employers will still take the risk of I'm not gonna check all the boxes. I'm gonna offer the minimum that that needs to be offered, but the employees take note of that. And so that's why it's important for that employer to put together a good package.
00:34:32
Speaker
Another way that we help is we have an identity theft identity theft protection program. What a better way in this time of age to show your employee that you care about them. yeah by putting an out identity identity theft protection program in their hands ah at you know a very small or or no cost at all that allows them to make sure that them and their families are protected. So it's it's really key to just kind of, again, we're there to help with putting together this package that makes it a nice kind of process for that employee as they go through the whole life cycle of their employment.
00:35:10
Speaker
You know, i the the We talk a lot about the um you know the effect that that all things like this have on on retention. right Retention is you know a component of so many different ways that an employer right is ultimately going to treat their... Well, I should say, you know regrettable turnover right is usually tied to you know X amount of things, right laundry list of things that the employer um you know has going on within inside their organization. and and benefits, right? and me
00:35:45
Speaker
All of these things that you're talking about make a huge difference, right? When it comes to retention, when it um comes to to culture. You said, what was the word you just said?
00:35:56
Speaker
Employees take note, right? They might not say something right then, but you know they they're constantly, I think, even if even if it's subconscious, they are constantly evaluating their employer. The same way that employers are constantly of evaluating their employees, the reverse is being done. I'm just kind of curious your perspective on how all of the things that you're doing to help employers provide the best experience to their employees, how that ultimately affects retention at the organizations that use Equifax.
00:36:34
Speaker
Yeah, I i think it's ah it's part of that evaluation. So what can we do to help the employer get high marks on that employee evaluation that they're they're processing in their brain, right? And I like the way you put that of,
00:36:51
Speaker
the the employees are always kind of going, you know, is this the right employer for me? Do i have the right benefits? Am I in the right role? Do I have a a growth trajectory?
00:37:03
Speaker
And think that, you know, with a lot of our solutions, we're going to really drill down pretty deep into everything that we offer. ah it It really boils down to are we enabling that employer to be properly,
00:37:17
Speaker
i evaluated by their employee and with high regards so are we helping the employer be compliant so that the employee life's easy for for the employee on the onboarding process or in their active benefits enrollment but also what can we provide to the employer that they can then take to their employees that maybe makes the employee go oh they're you know this company's thinking about me and what I need in my, in my role, in my life to support my family, et cetera.
The Future of Healthcare and AI's Role in Compliance
00:37:50
Speaker
So that's where we like to be market leaders, thought leaders in what's going to happen a year down the line, three years down the line, five years down the line. So we've got folks that, you know, are in Washington, making sure, you know, watching what, what changes are happening with the government. Uh, and also,
00:38:10
Speaker
One thing that I'm very passionate about right now is the evolution of healthcare care is ah this thing called ICHRA, I-C-H-R-A, which is an individual contribution a health reimbursement account.
00:38:25
Speaker
And it's a new way to look at benefits where the employee is kind of given the the tools to make their own decision on what plans they want to enroll in based on maybe where they are or what their needs are. And so it's just another way for employers to to kind of you know put something on the table for the employee where the employee goes, they care about me.
00:38:51
Speaker
I like that you you you you you mentioned, you talk about looking five years, 10 years, right? And the in sort of the evolution. So looking ahead, you know, the the regulatory environment around this has a ah lot of moving parts, right? um what What do employers need to be watching right now?
00:39:17
Speaker
You know, any changes or or shifts on the horizon that that organizations need to be preparing for? I mean, I understand that it's very to predict sometimes what's going on in um So, you know, with without getting into into the political landscape, like, what what do employers need to be paying attention to you know, that that might be coming down the pike?
00:39:42
Speaker
Yeah, I... ah I don't know if I have the right answer for that right now. ah Really, because to your point, would it's there's a lot of movement going on. There's a lot of changes. um i think what they need, you know, what employers need to be thinking about is What compliance pieces do I need to be focused on in order to have the least amount of disruption within my organization?
00:40:12
Speaker
So what, what are the things that are being really reviewed and scrutinized right now that two, three, five years from now are still going to be heavily scrutinized.
00:40:24
Speaker
And, um to me it it it really focuses on onboarding as well as uh just the the active employees getting the right benefits and i think as long as they have their pulse on that yeah they'll be prepared for any changes that come up and two not to sound you know too cheesy, I guess, but having that subject matter expert to kind of monitor Washington for you, yeah to go Hey, we heard this and this is the path this could lead us to.
00:41:03
Speaker
So let's make sure that we're prepared for it. Uh, it is really kind of the most important part in my opinion right now. Yeah. Because, because what, what leaders are, are, you know, what SMB, you know,
00:41:16
Speaker
leaders are are spending the majority of their time, you know, with their eyes on Washington, probably not many, right? They have so many other things to worry about. How do you see the tools and the tech in the space evolving? Like what will ACA management look like in five years for a well-run HR team?
00:41:33
Speaker
ah Yeah. ah Well, I think that for a well-run HR team, they're going to be leveraging, of course, AI, yeah whether that be their own AI tool or an outsourced tool.
00:41:46
Speaker
And I think that ah i'm I'm not, you know, just to to kind of preface, I'm not fully... ah I guess ready for how the technology is going to change the ACA management.
00:42:02
Speaker
I think that it will make it a little easier ah over time, but there's still a lot that we need to learn of how it can support ah just managing the benefits, managing the compliance, monitoring those hours month over month.
00:42:14
Speaker
But I do think that in three, five years that we will have it figured out to make things more efficient, both for for us as a company that has a technology that's ah you know out in front of an employer, but also for the employer that's kind of managing that day to day process.
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's it's pretty incredible. It's going to work its way into all, AI is going to work its way into all parts of ah HR tech, and it's probably going to have, you know, an outsized influence in some areas and um maybe not as, you know, significant in others, um but it's probably going to be in everything. Yeah.
00:42:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be touching everything at some level, I would agree. I think there's a lot of people that still unsure of what you have off degree. so A lot of people are. And I think that as...
00:43:07
Speaker
you know i think that as teams start to use it, right you're also finding that there's a lot of folks within those teams who are reticent right or who have not adopted it or are comfortable with it at the level that you know ah that they that they should be or that they could be. right And the AI itself is not fully mature. right So yeah you know it's able to handle and take over a lot of different things. ah Other things probably still require you know, enormous amount of human judgment.
00:43:41
Speaker
um What about compliance specifically? You know, a role it might play in, um you know, specifically in this compliance? Any Yeah, I think what role AI will play. yeah Yeah, I do think that AI can be helpful in ah bringing in data and quickly notifying you where there are risks.
00:44:07
Speaker
And that is definitely something that I'm looking to figure out how how can we how can we bring this tool in so that we can help from a compliance standpoint for something to just quickly tell us where do we have the risk and you know what is that? Are we teetering on that line of I guess, you know ultimately, are we going to get that call from the IRS or not?
00:44:32
Speaker
i think that's you know I think that's how it can benefit. But I know we talked about change earlier, kind of that, you know, that, don't want to say fear of change, but unwillingness to, you know, Hey, we're doing this process now.
00:44:47
Speaker
I think that's where a lot of people are with AI. Uh, probably myself included is just, I don't know where it's going to fit in. So maybe I'm a little hesitant of it, but I'm definitely interested in learning how it can help.
00:44:59
Speaker
You know, i I, have a question
Final Advice on ACA Management and Compliance
00:45:01
Speaker
here. so as we, as we wrap up, this is what kind of one of my favorite things to, to close on. is this idea of you know an h r professional business leader, an owner or operator, you know came up to you and said, Todd, I know our ACA process is a complete mess, but I don't even know where to start.
00:45:26
Speaker
You know, you're on an elevator, you have a minute until you're at the top floor and the door is open and this person flies right out the, you know, out the door. What's that single most important piece of advice besides call Equifax?
00:45:40
Speaker
Did you give them?
00:45:44
Speaker
ah Yeah, it's ah very quickly, if I have a minute, it's as an employer, you have an obligation to align to the regulation that is the ACA.
00:45:55
Speaker
Keep the IRS off of your back. Don't let them know who you are. Fix the challenges that you have right now ah to to make sure that you're compliant going forward.
00:46:08
Speaker
and And call Equifax. Yeah, that's... That's love it that's pretty much it. i You know, that that would be my my quick statement as someone is rushing off of an elevator. I appreciate you, Todd. This was a lot of fun. you Thanks for joining me today.
00:46:23
Speaker
Oh, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. And it was a great conversation. It was fun. And a big thanks to all you watching and listening to Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. Please visit mustardhub.com to learn more about Mustard Hub and discover how we help companies become destinations for workplace happiness and turn culture into a competitive edge.
00:46:43
Speaker
Until next time.