IMA, Inc., the 11th largest independently owned retail insurance broker in the U.S. with offices in Denver, Dallas, Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita, today announced that its Employee Benefits Division unveiled the Play or Pay Analyzer, a sophisticated modeling tool to calculate the financial  impact of health care reform legislation.  

The most significant provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) go into effect in 2014, and employers must decide whether to continue providing employer sponsored health care coverage or to drop coverage and be exposed to paying penalties. In some instances employers can be assessed penalties even if they offer coverage. 

“Whether or not to offer medical coverage is a complex business decision that goes beyond the cost of the insurance premium,” said Karen Vines, vice president at IMA and leader of the company’s health care reform task force.  “The IMA Play or Pay Analyzer offers our employee benefits clients a powerful analytics process that provides exceptional financial precision and thoughtful insight.”

Understanding a company’s exposure to the regulatory penalties that employers can trigger in both the “play” and “pay” landscapes requires a thorough working knowledge of the regulations.  IMA’s strategic approach analyzes a company’s total benefits landscape from both a financial and cultural perspective and assesses the total impact of regulatory penalties to a business.

A number of factors play into the benefits cost equation including payroll tax, corporate tax, the cost of turnover and contribution disbursement.  The Play or Pay Analyzer helps employers by incorporating the flexibility to model various scenarios and includes a ten-year projection component. 

Employers that engage IMA in the Play or Pay Analyzer process will understand their company’s risk of triggering regulatory penalties and the true bottom line cost of providing coverage.  IMA helps employers learn about what will happen to their employees in an exchange environment and how an individual can receive a subsidy. 

To learn more, contact Karen Vines at Karen.vines@imacorp.comor 316-266-6532.