Bulletin: Income and Employment Verifications – “ACA and the Impact on Verifications”

ACA and the Impact on Employment Verifications

According to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), employees not offered medical coverage by their employer (or affordable coverage relative to their household income) might be eligible for Medicaid benefits or tax incentives intended to help them purchase insurance. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for administering these benefit programs defined by the ACA, requires employer validation of employment and income in assessing applicant eligibility for these benefits.

CMS has selected The Work Number^® service from Equifax as a trusted primary employment and income data source for its Health Insurance Marketplace, making The Work Number an integral component in verifying employment and income on applications received by CMS.

Employers with payroll data in The Work Number database can provide a significant advantage to their employee populations by accelerating employee access to credit and benefits while protecting employee data through an uncompromising approach to security, resulting in an overall increase in employee satisfaction.

Employers using The Work Number service can also benefit from an automated employment and income verifications process designed to help them maintain compliance with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) while improving efficiency, consistency, and security.  Ultimately this can result in the reduction of both internal resources needed to fulfill verification requests and in legal risk to their organization from verifications being completed incorrectly or inaccurately.

Bottom line

As income and employment verifications continue to increase based on changing lending regulatory requirements, lowered interest rates, and growing government benefit enrollment rates; employees are encountering more life events and financial choices that require these verifications as part of the decision process. It is important that employers focus on their own verification fulfillment process to make sure that employee data is kept secure, while completing the request promptly to the benefit of their employees.

Contact us to learn more about how Equifax Workforce Solutions can help you manage your income and employment verifications.

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Related resources

Infographic  |  Income and Employment Verifications

Solution  |  ACA Management