The Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) legislation clearly identifies your clients as fiduciaries. However, most employers/plan sponsors aren’t aware that the law has passed and what the implications are to them and their plans. By evolving your practices to incorporate CAA, you will provide significant value to your clients while driving additional growth for your business.

How do we know this? Because we saw this scenario play out in the Retirement Industry with the Pension Protection Act. As with CAA, the Pension Protection Act identified the employer as the plan fiduciary. Advisors who leaned into the opportunity solidified their relationships with their clients and, as a result, significantly increased their market share. The new regulations and reporting obligations within the CAA legislation provide an identical opportunity for benefits advisors who are ready and willing to take the lead.

Right now, you must help your clients (and prospects) navigate through this unfamiliar territory. There are several actions that you can take to help your clients understand their fiduciary responsibilities:

1. Your clients must acknowledge that they are the named fiduciary for their healthcare program

2. Help your clients establish a compliant fiduciary procurement process and educate them on their roles and responsibilities as a fiduciary.
      
3. Ensure that your clients are prepared to identify and eliminate gag orders in their TPA/insurance agreements by the end of the year.  

4. Identify the various regulatory reporting, specifically Rx and direct and indirect compensation, that are required by CAA.
    
5. Explain to clients that they need to own their healthcare and Rx data in order to fully comply with the CAA regulations. Help clients access and store all of their data.

With many of the regulations in effect for the 2021 plan year, there is no time to waste and those advisors who aren’t at the forefront, helping clients through their fiduciary obligations, will find themselves behind.

At Innovu, we are totally committed to the advisor market and understand that advisors need the right tools and information to create the most value for their clients. We have developed solutions that provide you and your clients the ability to meet the fiduciary process and federal reporting requirements. These include our Pharmacy Reporting, Data Vaulting capabilities, Member Matching and Plan Design Benchmarking.

Contact Innovu to learn more about the implications CAA will have on your business and the solutions available to help you accelerate your practice.

Visit innovu.com for a library of CAA resources specifically tailored to help you better understand the legislation as well as the actions that you can take now to help your clients meet their fiduciary responsibilities.