Reporting Requirements Toolkit

Welcome to the Reporting Requirements Toolkit

There are two distinct sets of reporting requirements to help the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) administer compliance with the employer and individual mandates – the Large Employer Reporting and Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) Reporting requirements. It’s important to understand the impacts of these responsibilities because they vary based on group plan size and how plans are insured or funded.

Large Employer Reporting – all applicable large employers must report to the IRS on the medical coverage they offer in compliance with the employer mandate. The reporting is due annually.

Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) Reporting – all insurers of health plans offering minimum essential coverage must report on all individuals covered under these plans. Among other things, this information will help the IRS confirm the reported individuals are compliant with the individual mandate.

Insurers and employers of self-insured medical plans must report annually on every covered individual, including dependents.

To ensure the reporting includes identifying data for the IRS, these reporting entities must make “reasonable attempts” to capture social security numbers (SSNs) for all covered individuals. If not provided during enrollment, a written communication must be sent to the “responsible person” who may provide the missing SSN information. In other words, the covered employee would receive the request for missing SSNs of any dependents.

IRS Forms and Deadlines

Read the fact sheet

Social Security Numbers with Cigna Healthcare

Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) are sensitive personal health information, and must be handled carefully and confidentially. At Cigna Healthcare^SM, we are committed to the responsible management, use and protection of our customers’ personal information, including SSNs/TINs. This includes both how we share, and receive data with our clients. Therefore, not all users of our secure client web portals will have access to view this sensitive personal data. Any user that logs into a secure Cigna Healthcare client website that cannot access SSN data from the eligibility report should work with their organization’s Plan/Primary Administrator.

You can contact your Cigna Healthcare representative if you need support determining the Plan/Primary Administrator or if you would like to see samples of the cover letter we send with the IRS Form 1095-B to your insured health plan beneficiaries.

Additional compliance action is required for Minimum Essential Coverage reporting by insurers or employers of self-insured health plans. Because SSNs are a key identifier for the IRS, reporting entities are required to make up to three “reasonable attempts” to obtain missing SSNs. Enrollment can be considered the first attempt as long as there’s a place for enrollees to give/confirm SSNs for themselves and dependents. If SSN/TIN is not obtained at enrollment, a separate outreach must be made by December 31 preceding the year being reported on. For those still missing SSN data after two outreach attempts, the third attempt must be made before December 31 of the year being reported on.

Please visit Informed on Reform, our web-based resource for critical information you need to know about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). For a comprehensive overview of the law’s other employer administrative responsibilities, please be sure to look into our Reporting Requirements.

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