Enrollment systems are sold on the demo and judged on the eligibility file.
Every benefits platform looks the same in a demonstration. What separates them is what happens at two in the morning on the first of the month, when a file moves between payroll, the benefits platform and the carrier and one of the three disagrees about who is covered. That disagreement is not discovered by the system. It is discovered by an employee at a pharmacy counter.
An integration connects the systems. It does not connect everything in them.
Employers reasonably assume that once payroll and the benefits platform are integrated, the data matches. In practice an integration carries some fields, carries others in one direction only, and quietly carries nothing at all for a short list of items that matter.
What Moves, and Which Way
Demographic data is usually bi-directional and fast — a new hire or a termination entered in payroll can appear in the benefits platform inside a minute. Base compensation typically flows one way into the benefits platform, while deduction codes and employer contributions flow the other way, sent at enrollment or when a cost changes.
What Never Moves
Retirement plan deferrals, commuter accounts and domestic partner deductions are commonly excluded from the wire entirely and stay manual. The reason is structural rather than a vendor quirk: most systems cannot split a single deduction into its pre-tax and post-tax portions, so the safest behavior is to send nothing.
The Termination Reason
No documented integration passes the reason for a termination across the wire. The benefits platform records the separation and defaults it to voluntary, whatever actually happened.
That single field is what COBRA eligibility, unemployment response and rehire handling turn on, so it has to be set by a person who knows.
Read our position on payroll integration and termination data →
One seat on your service team owns this, and it is not a shared duty.
For proper coverage of an account we work in service teams of five, and one of those seats is technology. It is the seat most brokers do not have, which is why eligibility problems so often get handed back to HR as something to call the carrier about.
Platform Selection
We evaluate systems on the file, the integration roster and the support model — not the interface. If the platform you already own can do the job, the right recommendation is to keep it and fix the configuration. The deciding questions are which carriers accept an automated file, how rejected records are reported back, and who at the vendor fixes them. A switch also costs retraining and data migration, so it has to beat more than a demo.
Open Enrollment as a Project
A build schedule, plan and rate entry, employee communications, sessions, and follow-up for the people who did not open the email. Enrollment is the one week a year every employee forms an opinion about their benefits. The build is tested against the renewal before employees see it, so rates and contribution tiers are right on the first screen. After the window closes, elections are checked against the first carrier file and the first payroll deduction.
One Card, One Portal
Pre-tax accounts run through a single benefits card and a single login, so employees are not carrying three cards and five passwords to use benefits they already have. The practical gain is fewer forgotten balances and fewer claims denied for missing receipts, because employees see every account in one place. It also gives HR one vendor to call when a card is declined.
The audit most employers have never had run.
An Eligibility Reconciliation
Your carrier bill compared line by line against what the benefits platform and payroll each believe. Invoices disagree with enrollment more often than anyone expects, and the difference is usually money. The usual findings are terminated employees still billed, dependents added in the platform but never sent to the carrier, and tier changes that reached payroll but not the invoice. Run monthly, the check catches each one while the carrier will still credit it.
A Documented File Map
Which fields move, in which direction, on what schedule, and which ones a person has to touch. Written down once, so it survives the next person in the HR seat. It also records what happens when a record fails, because some systems reject the whole file and others skip the bad line silently. The silent skip is the one that leaves an employee without coverage and nobody aware of it.
One Home Base
Compliance documents, claims analytics, benchmarking data and census information in one place rather than four carrier logins and an inbox. The point is continuity: when a question comes up about last year’s plan, a prior census or a notice that went out, the answer sits in the same place regardless of who asks. It also shortens the renewal, because the data a carrier needs is already assembled.
What employers ask about benefits technology.
What actually goes wrong with a benefits platform?
Rarely the enrollment screens. It is the eligibility file — the record moving between payroll, the platform and the carrier. When a termination reason or an effective date does not survive that trip, the employee finds out at a pharmacy counter.
Do we need a new platform or a better-run one?
Usually the second. Most platforms fail on configuration and file mapping rather than capability, and replacing one without fixing the mapping reproduces the same errors on a nicer screen. Before any switch, we map the current file and test it against a month of carrier bills. If the errors trace to setup, fixing them costs less than a migration; if the platform cannot carry what you need, that is when replacement makes sense.
Who owns the file when something breaks?
That is the question to ask before signing anything. On our accounts one named person owns it, because a duty shared across payroll, HR and the carrier is a duty nobody performs. On our side that is the IT seat on your service team, who knows your file layout, the carrier contacts and the payroll connection. HR still sees what changed and why, but does not have to diagnose it.
Benefits Administration in Bloomfield Hills Without the Spreadsheets
Many employers still track benefits enrollment on paper forms and spreadsheets. Then errors pile up. A former employee stays on the plan, or a new hire’s coverage starts late. Benefits administration in Bloomfield Hills fixes the process behind those mistakes.
We are CFH Insurance Consultants, an independent benefits firm in business since 2007. No carrier owns us. We help employers in Bloomfield Hills, Rochester Hills, Novi, Royal Oak and across Michigan.
Benefits Administration
Benefits administration is the day-to-day work of running your plans. It covers enrollment, changes, terminations, carrier bills and employee records. It also includes accounts like COBRA, FSA and HRA, which are run by outside administrators.
Most employers use a benefits administration system for this. It is an online tool where employees enroll and HR tracks changes.
Here is how we help with group benefits administration in Bloomfield Hills:
- We help you pick an enrollment system that fits your size.
- We find, set up and oversee the system and your outside administrators.
- We hold each administrator to its contract.
- We check that carrier bills match your enrollment records.
For proper coverage of an account we work in teams of 5: an account executive, an account manager, a plan analyst, customer service and IT. Our IT person helps with setup and data files.
What is benefits administration software?
It is an online system for benefits enrollment and records. Employees log in, compare plans and make their choices. HR sees who enrolled in what. Many systems can also send enrollment changes to carriers.
The right system saves hours during open enrollment in the fall. It also cuts down on errors in bills and coverage. We help you choose one and set it up.
Who should administer COBRA for a small business?
First, check if COBRA applies to you. Michigan has no state continuation law. Federal COBRA applies at 20 or more employees. Under 20, there is no continuation duty.
If COBRA applies, most employers use an outside COBRA administrator. It sends the required notices and collects payments. We do not run COBRA ourselves. We find, set up and oversee the administrator and hold it to its contract.
Common questions
Does CFH run COBRA, FSA or HRA accounts?
No. We find, set up and oversee the administrators that run them. The administrator handles notices, payments and claims under its contract, and we check that it does so on time and to the plan rules. When something goes wrong, we are the ones who press the administrator to fix it, so HR does not have to.
Can employees enroll online?
Yes, with the right system. We help you set one up and train your HR team. Online enrollment pays off when the system also sends elections to the carriers and deductions to payroll, so HR is not rekeying them. Employees who want help choosing a plan can call us directly during the enrollment window.
What if our carrier bill does not match our records?
We compare the bill with your enrollment list and work with the carrier to fix it. The cause is usually a change that reached one system and not the others, so the fix is made in the system that is wrong, not only on the invoice. Otherwise the same line comes back on next month’s bill.
Talk to us about benefits administration in Bloomfield Hills
Book a 30-minute call or send us your renewal, and we will look at how you run enrollment today. Our office is at 41000 Woodward Avenue, Suite 350 East, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304. Call 248.370.8853.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
Switch to CFH. Unhappy with your broker? Your employees won’t notice. You will. →