Portal prep
How to answer each question
Every question on the ACA Reporting Information Form exists because it changes a code on a 1095-C. Here's what each one means, where the answer usually lives, and what trips employers up.
What we're asking
We're asking whether you offer ACA-compliant coverage to full-time employees, and whether that offer extends to their spouse and dependent children. We also ask whether any other company shares 80% or more common ownership with you.
Where to find it
Your carrier's plan documents or summary of benefits confirm who is eligible. Your accountant or attorney can confirm the ownership question.
What to watch for
Eligibility for dependents is a separate answer from eligibility for a spouse — a plan can cover one and not the other, and the two are coded differently on line 14 of the 1095-C. Common ownership matters because related companies are combined for the 50-employee test, even though each EIN files its own forms.
What we're asking
Whether your medical plan is fully insured through a carrier, self-insured (you pay claims from company funds, usually with a third-party administrator), or partially self-insured. We also ask whether you offer a health reimbursement arrangement.
Where to find it
The plan document or your broker. If you receive monthly claims funding reports rather than fixed premium invoices, you are almost certainly self-insured.
What to watch for
Self-insured plans require Part III of the 1095-C — every covered individual, including spouses and children, listed with the months they were covered. Telling us early means we ask for that detail once instead of in February.
What we're asking
The employee's share of the monthly cost for the lowest-cost, employee-only option that provides minimum value — not the family rate and not the total premium.
Where to find it
Your rate sheet or renewal packet from the carrier or broker.
What to watch for
If your plan year isn't a calendar year, the amount changes mid-year, so we need the figure for each plan period along with the dates it applies. This number drives affordability, so a family rate entered here can create penalty exposure that doesn't exist.
What we're asking
How long a new employee waits before coverage is available, which groups the wait applies to, and how someone who leaves and returns is treated.
Where to find it
Your handbook, plan document or eligibility provisions.
What to watch for
The ACA allows a waiting period of no more than 90 days. Re-hire treatment matters most: depending on how long someone was gone, they may return as a new hire with a fresh wait, or resume their prior status immediately. Guessing here produces gaps on the form that look like months without an offer.
What we're asking
The exact rule you follow — for example first of the month following 60 days, or date of hire — and when coverage terminates relative to a termination date. Plus any exceptions you make for particular roles or situations.
Where to find it
Plan document eligibility section, and your own past practice.
What to watch for
The 1095-C is reported month by month, so 'coverage ends the last day of the month of termination' and 'coverage ends on the termination date' produce different forms. If you have ever made an exception, tell us — undocumented exceptions are the most common source of corrected forms.
What we're asking
First-time filings only. When your stability period (plan year) starts, how long your administrative period runs, and the start date and length of your measurement period — for both ongoing employees and newly hired variable-hour employees.
Where to find it
Your plan year dates and your open enrollment timeline. The three periods are derived from those two facts.
What to watch for
Measurement and stability periods are always the same length. Work backward: plan year start, minus the administrative period, gives you the day the measurement period ends.
Working out your three periods
If this is your first filing with us, these three windows have to line up. They are the same three concepts under different everyday names.
Measurement Period
Also known as the Lookback Period
The window during which employee hours are tracked to determine full-time status.
Administrative Period
Also known as Open Enrollment
The window used to notify, enroll and process coverage elections before the plan year begins.
Stability Period
Also known as the Plan Year
The period during which coverage must be offered to employees determined full-time during the measurement period.
And here is the order to work them out in:
- 1
Determine your plan year
Identify when the plan year (stability period) starts and ends. Its length always matches the measurement period — most plans are 12 months, so most measurement periods are too.
- 2
Set your admin period
Choose how long open enrollment takes: present the plans, make offers, collect elections and submit paperwork to the carrier. Most companies allow 1, 2 or 3 months (0–90 days).
- 3
Calculate the measurement period
Work backward from the start of the admin period. Each time a measurement period ends, the next one begins immediately.
Measurement Period Admin Period Stability Period
Who to pull into the conversation
- Your broker or carrier — plan year dates, minimum value, self-only rates by plan period, self-insured status.
- HR — waiting periods, re-hire practice, exceptions, waivers on file.
- Payroll — hours, pay types, termination dates and enrollment deductions.
- Your accountant or attorney — common ownership across EINs.
Ready to fill it in
You can save a draft in the portal and come back once you've confirmed the details, so there's no need to have every answer before you start.