Health care and wellness in your workplace have never been more important, and restaurants have a major opportunity to let their teams know during the open enrollment period for employee benefits.

Traditionally, restaurateurs must make an effort to get eligible employees enrolled in the health care benefits the operation offers. And that effort might be compounded becausethis yearrestaurants are relying on their teams to face other operational challenges like never before.

Someeffective approachesfor a successful open enrollment include:

• Starting in advance by padding the enrollment deadline by two weeks
• Sending employees enrollment reminders via multiple means
• Designating one employee per site as an enrollment emissary
• Offering rewards for enrolling
• Using technology and electronic enrollment options, or automatic re-enrollment setups

A recentwebinarsponsored by the National Restaurant Association and hosted byClinton Wolf, the Association's senior vice president, Health and Insurance Services, outlines some good news in the midst of all the COVID-19-related bad news.

For all the latest health care benefit information for the restaurant industry, visitrestauranthealthcare.org

Health care benefits that custom fit the needs of restaurant employees during this time are available as are some potential sources for financial relief.

From the Hill

Aaron Frazier, Association director of Healthcare and Tax Policy, provided information about restaurant advocacy efforts that could give both restaurants and employees more reasons to enroll in health care plans for 2021.

"With the help of members' advocacy, the health insurance tax, or HIT, was eliminated in 2019, effective starting next year. That tax added 2%-4% to premium costs for employers and employees. We all know that health insurance is an important benefit to help retain employees."

Federal relief efforts also could bolster enrollment if they make it through Congress, he says.

Relief could take one of three forms:

• The RESTAURANTS Act, which earmarks $120 billion in grants for eligible restaurants
• A second round of Payroll Protection Program that would make $257.6 billion available in the form of forgivable loans
• The "RESTART" program that would make about $400 billion available as partially forgivable loans

In all cases, money can be used for health care plans. Finally, he says, employee retention tax credits (ERTC) also can be used toward health care insurance plans.

Insurance insights

Joining in, insurance expert John Pask co-founder and president,GoBenefits, Dallas, recommends leveraging electronic enrollment.

"There are good products and tools out there that make it simpler for employees to enroll online," he says. During the pandemic, traditional in-person meetings aren't recommended, and 68% of employees want online enrollment anyway, according to onesurveyhe cites.

As you're reviewing plans to offer during open enrollment, he adds, don't forget about health conditions not related to COVID.Look for the kinds of extras and programs tier-one insurers offer such as:

• Digital experiences
• Health4Me and Advocate4Me
• Virtual visits
• Behavioral health services
• Employee assistance programs (EAP)
• Quit For Life smoking cessation
• Cancer support programs
• Maternity support programs
• Real Appeal diabetes program
• Rally Wellness program

Association endorsed programs

The National Restaurant Association partners with UnitedHealth Group to offer restaurants choices of group health plans in states where UnitedHealthcare has plans, with member pricing on many products.

Kimberlee Vandervoorn, vice president, Optum Consumer Solutions, UnitedHealth Group, Eden Prairie, Minn., outlines some of the advantages and benefits of UnitedHealthcare plan offerings and other programs, including:

• Exclusive pricing and plans for Association members
• Unlimited Teladoc virtual visits for all employees (and their entire family) for $7 per mo. per employee which includes mental health, dermatology, back pain, nutrition and expert medical opinions-no insurance required
• Free prescription drug savings program
• Negotiated pricing on COVID-19 home testing kits along with a choice of 30 other tests
• Free access to Kaia Health's virtual online back pain management program
• Free mental health, substance abuse and suicide prevention resources

Offering restaurant health care benefits can help you attract and retain loyal staff. Yet these benefits come with many regulations that are important for small businesses to know. As you begin the process of rehiring employees, learn about common mistakes and how to avoid compliance penalties. 1) Ask only limited health questions, even with COVID-19 If you have 15 or more employees, you are covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). You cannot ask employees about disabilities or medical exams unless it's related to their ability to perform essential job functions. However, while the ADA and Rehabilitation Act rules continue to apply in the current pandemic, they do not prevent you from following the COVID-19 guidelines made by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) or state/local public health authorities. You may send employees home if they have COVID-19 or similar symptoms. You may ask employees who report feeling ill at work, or who call in sick, questions about their symptoms to determine if they may have COVID-19. You may take their temperature. Only in a pandemic, you may ask about disabilities or require medical exams of employees who do not have symptoms, to identify those at a higher risk of complications. If an employee returns from travel, you may ask questions about his or her exposure during the trip. All symptoms would be subject to ADA confidentiality requirements. 2) Protect employees' information under HIPAA If you offer an employer-sponsored health plan or benefits such as an Employee Assistance Program, you may be a covered entity under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Use this tool to find out if HIPAA applies to you. Under HIPAA, you must safeguard protected health information (PHI), such as your employee's name, date of birth, and medical information. PHI includes data collected from employee wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, workers' comp claims, and the like. If you're not a covered employer, it's a good idea to respect privacy in the same way, to establish trust with your employees. 3) Make a cybersecurity plan Small businesses often overlook the technical safeguards that the HIPAA Security Rule requires. Put in place a strong cybersecurity plan to protect employee data. Encrypt data whenever it goes beyond your firewall. Have a disaster recovery plan in place in case of a breach. Remember to physically secure electronic PHI from unauthorized access, in your data center, server, cloud, workstations, and on mobile devices. Lock everything. Strengthen your administrative security too, with risk management policies and assessments, contingency plans, and restrictions on who can access data. Train employees in HIPAA compliance each year. Report any data breaches to employees. For more, see this HIPAA Security Checklist from HealthIT.gov. 4) Track hours and classify employees correctly If you don't pay for all hours worked or misclassify employees, you could violate the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Track employee hours, and always pay overtime when employees work more than 40 hours a week. Do not give time off in return for overtime. Pay for training time and for breaks. You do not have to pay for mealtimes. Keep timecards for two years. Classify employees properly; do not designate them as independent contractors to skirt overtime and benefits responsibilities. Learn and comply with the federal tip laws. Your state's minimum wage for tipped employees may be higher. 5) Count employee hours carefully to make health insurance decisions Under the Affordable Care Act, if you employ 50 or more full-time-equivalent employees (FTEs), you must offer minimum essential health care coverage to at least 95% of them and their dependents. Otherwise, you will have to pay a penalty to the IRS called the employer shared responsibility payment. If even one of your full-time employees gets a federal tax subsidy to buy a health plan through a Health Insurance Marketplace on HealthCare.gov, the IRS can fine you $2,000 per for each of your eligible employees (although the IRS excludes the first 30 full-time employees from the count). Under the ACA's adjusted community rating (ACR) laws, you cannot use employees' health status or claims experience to set premiums for your group or the individual employee. You can only adjust premiums in the individual and small group market for age, family size, geographic location, and tobacco use. The ACR can result in higher premiums. Count your employee hours carefully. If you are not required to provide insurance under the ACA, you can consider self-funded or level-funded plans. With these plans, you must report the Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) you offer employees each year using 1094-B and 1095-B forms. If your employees do not enroll in MEC, they may have to pay the individual mandate tax. 6) Send the right notifications to employees about welfare benefit plans Did you know that your group health plans plans with major medical benefits plus health flexible spending accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, dental and vision plans, and wellness programs have disclosure and reporting requirements as welfare benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA)? If you have two or more employees and offer a group health plan, you must automatically send an easy-to-understand summary plan description (SPD) to all plan members, including those receiving COBRA. SPDs should go to new participants within 90 days of coverage and within 120 days for new plans. You may also need to file Form 5500 each year. 7) Notify employees they can continue health insurance under COBRA If you have 20 or more employees, when covered employees lose coverage under your health plan through a qualified event, they are eligible to continue health insurance under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Qualifying events include a reduction in hours and termination. COBRA can apply to health insurance, certain wellness programs, flexible spending accounts, health retirement accounts, and other plans. To avoid a common small business mistake, you must notify the employee and covered adult dependents of their right to COBRA. Send a notice that describes how to choose COBRA, application dates, costs, etc., within 44 days of the qualifying event. 8) Manage eligibility for pre-tax cafeteria plans A Section 125 cafeteria plan lets your employees choose to receive benefits such as health savings accounts and dependent care assistance pre-tax. To stay compliant, if you offer a simple cafeteria plan, manage employee eligibility very carefully. You must ensure that enough employees can get into the plan who are not highly compensated employees or key employees. The plan cannot provide more than 25% of the total plan benefits to key employees.

National Restaurant Association -www.restaurant.org

This is the link for under those question.

1) What is a current legislative issue for this particular segment of the hospitality industry?

2) What action is the professional association supporting regarding this issue?Is there a bill or new law being proposed? Is the professional association asking for funding for a segment of the industry?