ACA TRACK Knowledge Base

Now it is time to begin entering your employee data.In this section, we’re going to focus on standard data entry procedures, specifically looking at employees whose status did not change throughout the year.

Information to Include
Your employee data sheet must include all information for:

• Any employee (full-time or variable hour) who was actively employed by your company, or eligible for health insurance through your company, at any point in the current calendar year
• Employees on leave
• Terminated employees and non-employees (spouses and dependents who have their own plan) on COBRA coverage (self-insured plans only)
• Retirees and surviving spouses who are covered by the employer sponsored plan with primary coverage (self-insured only)

Employees with No Changes

If an employee has had no changes to their job status or insurance coverage over the course of the year, you only need to provide a single line of information, detailing their personal information, job status, coverage type and begin date.

This is true for new employees as well, provided there are no further changes to their job status or coverage type during the current calendar year.

The following examples will walk you through the process for entering their information into your Employee Spreadsheet.

Full-Time, Insured Employee

For full-time employees who have been with you since before the start of the year and have not experienced any changes to their employment or coverage status, you only need to provide their basic personal, employment, and coverage details:[1]

Here are some things to note as you enter data for this type of employee:

• Double-check all of their personal information.
• Hire Date: This refers to the date current employment began. Enter the employee’s initial hire date, rehire date, or the date of transfer to a new division (whichever is most recent).
• Status Begin Date: This date may be different from the Hire Date if the employee has experienced a Job Status change since then. Example: Employee changed from VH to FT in a previous year.
• Coverage Begin Date: If the employee’s current coverage began in a previous year, you have the option to simply enter 1/1/20xx (current reporting year).

Full-time Employee that Waived Coverage

For full-time employees who have waived coverage, enter their information exactly as you would for Full-time Insured Employees. The ONLY difference should be the Coverage Type listed for them:

• Plan ID: List the lowest-cost plan offered to the employee.
• Coverage Begin Date: Enter the date that coverage was first available to them. If it was in a previous year, you have the option to simply enter 1/1/20xx (current reporting year).

Variable-hour (Part-time), Not-Eligible for Coverage

If an employee works part-time and is not eligible for insurance coverage, their information should be captured in the same manner as a Full-time employee:

• Plan ID: Leave this field blanks, since they are not eligible for coverage.

Full-time, Insured Employee – Hired Mid-year

Employees hired over the course of the year require no more effort than your long-term employees:

When entering new employee data, pay close attention to:

• Coverage Begin Date: This will depend on your company’s waiting period and coverage start date. The example above assumes a 60-day waiting period, with coverage beginning on the first of the following month.

Full-time, Waived Employee – Hired Mid-year

Enter information for these employees exactly as you would for new employees that accepted coverage, except use the “Waived” Coverage Type:

• Note: Even though the employee waived coverage, you must still enter the lowest-cost pan offered and the date coverage was first available to them.

New, Full-time Employee – Not Eligible for Coverage Until Next Year
If your company requires a waiting period before new employees are eligible for coverage, you may have new employees who will not be eligible for coverage until after the next calendar year.

In this case, the IRS requires special reporting to let them know why they are not receiving coverage in the current calendar year. To report this, you simply need to leave the Plan ID blank and code the Coverage Type as LNAP (Limited Non-Assessment Period):

Next Step: Capturing Changes