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PHRSC is an independent association of Amazon Delivery Service Partner owner-operators, with the mission of providing HR services, solutions, benefits, technology, retirement and other value added services to the DSP network. PHRSC is the sponsor of the DSP Benefits Center.

Disclaimer: Amazon Delivery Service Partners and Prime HR Service Corp have worked to make available an independent source of benefits, retirement, insurance, and HR services for the benefit of its independent delivery service partners. All benefits, HR, retirement and insurance decisions, and sourcing are the responsibility of the individual Amazon DSP independent company.  It is the Amazon Delivery Service Partners decision  whether to participate in the benefits and services provided . Neither Amazon, Prime HR Service Corp, their subsidiaries, nor any outside vendors are fiduciaries with respect to such decisions.

DSPBC offers an extensive set of benefit options for all DSPs whether you are first starting out, or an experienced DSP. Our Benefits Center consultants provide multiple options to you so you can make an informed decision that is right for your business and compliant with Amazon DSP business requirements.

• DSP Individual:   The Individual Health Coverage Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) option is great for start-up DSPs allowing you to set your contribution reimbursement for Employees.  Employees shop for their own Individual Health Insurance (available in all 50 states) on an award- winning online platform.  
   
   
  • Decisely and its ICHRA Partner, Take Command Health, help create the best option for you and what your required contributions should be to stay compliant with Federal law.  
     
     
• DSP Group Coverage:  The DSPBC can quote traditional small group insurance available in your state with national and local insurers.  Minimum employee participation requirements vary by carrier but generally range from 50-75% of eligible employees after valid waivers (like on parents or spouse’s plans).
   
• Prime Benefit Solutions (PBS):  A unique program sponsored by Prime HR Services Corp., for DSPs with 30+ eligible employees.  DSPBC can offer special programs from both United Health Care and CIGNA, enjoying discounts and upgraded coverages. Minimum participation requirement for Prime Benefit Solution is 30% of eligible employees.
   

In addition to Medical Insurance, DSPBC offers a variety of additional benefit options, including Dental, Vision, Life, Disability, Retirement (401k and IRAs) Employer or Employee paid.  

Here’s a quick summary of the key attributes and requirements of each solution.

*Actual averages from DSPs nationally for Employer Contribution and Employee Premium cost, monthly

DSPBC has some great tools to help you forecast what average group health insurance, or ICHRAs, may cost to help you make decisions.  So even if you’re just “1” employee, hiring 10 or 20 in the weeks ahead, go ahead and apply online, www.dspbenefits.com  and we’ll help you look at average premium costs in your area, and when you’re ready to get a real quote, we can finalize real options quickly. (actual premium costs generally vary by age, male/female, and location of residence)

It varies.  DSP Individual is quickest and can be as little as two weeks.  If you’ve chosen the DSP Group or Prime Benefits Solutions route, from decision to open enrollment for benefits is 30-45 days.   Generally on both Group Insurance and ICHRA, you need to make a go / no go decision on your final benefits offerings a minimum of three weeks prior to the 1^st of the month when benefits are effective or “go live” in order to provide sufficient time for employees to enroll, and the carriers to be notified of new insureds.  

Yes! Your Decisely portal is designed to capture valid waiver reasons and provides reports to confirm compliance.  To meet the compliance requirement all employees should be required to log in to the portal and take an action to reflect an election or declination (waiver).  Employees not engaging in the Open Enrollment experience (even if they don’t intend to take coverage)  will skew compliance reports and Amazon Compliance may require additional information from the DSP owner. 

Since we have been advised that Amazon requires 100% of eligible employees go through open enrollment or new hire enrollment, it is our recommendation you make logging into the portal a requirement as part of your onboarding process for new hires and the open enrollment period.

It is up to the employer how & when they plan to process reimbursements 

Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (DSP Individual), by law, is generally available to 2+ w-2 employees but in some cases, an ICHRA can be done with just one employee. “Group” Insurance is defined by State law as 2 or more.  A valid census is key to securing coverage because Insurance Companies determine their pricing on different components.  Age, gender, location, salary, and coverage level are major components.

Sometimes additional information on the eligible employees (and family members) is required which is why an actual census with your workforce is so important.

But if you’re at that single employee stage, with lots of hiring on the horizon, we do have the ability to do some basic forecasting of your benefit options (group and individual) and likely employer contribution / cost implications, and generally can do so in 1-2 business days.  We recommend entering your information in the website and let us provide you with information so you can make a well informed decision on the route you’d like to go.  

It is a new way of providing Health Insurance financial support to your employees.  You fund a special “Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Account” (ICHRA) where your employee shops for their own individual health coverage, and you as the Employer reimburses the employee up to your monthly contribution by adding your contribution to their paycheck.  If the employee already has individual health coverage from an insurer or an exchange, they show proof of coverage, and gets reimbursed  your contribution reimbursement through the ICHRA administrator, Take Command Health.   If they don’t have coverage, DSPBC through its ICHRA fulfillment partner, Take Command Health, provides an easy, online individual health coverage shopping option in all 50 states.

See this link for an two  minute video on ICHRA’s   https://www.takecommandhealth.com/intro-to-ichra

The sooner the better! To meet Amazon requirements that all DSPs are to offer medical benefits to all eligible employees within the first 30 days of employment. To get a benefits analysis quickly, a complete census of all employees is required.

1.    DSP owner visits the DSPBC website, www.dspbenefits.com.

a.    Click on Get Started 

i.    complete required information

ii.    provide complete and accurate employee census.  This step is crucial for a quick turnaround time to receive a quote. Missing information will delay the process.  We can assist you with the best way to get us the census data from your payroll vendor.

2.    DSP Benefit Center Representative will contact you to confirm all information submitted.

3.    DSP Sales Consultant will contact DSP owner within 2 business days of your completed employee census to...

a.    Review benefit options Individual, Group, Prime Benefit Solution)

b.    Present quotes/Options (generally  completed 4-5 business days after census)

c.    Determine benefit plans and employer contributions

Key employee information is needed by the carriers to determine the rates for all 3 options as well as provide guidance on your contribution model to keep you compliant with Amazon and Federal regulations.

Below is the data we need; information should be available within your payroll system for all active employees.  Please note: the data is crucial for an accurate benefits analysis.

1.    Full employee name

2.    Email address

3.    Gender

4.    Date of birth

5.    Employee home address and zip

6.    Work location and zip

7.    Employee status (active)

8.    Employee class (FT, PT, Seasonal)

9.    Date of hire

10.     Rate of pay or estimated annual salary  

11.     Medical Coverage level – who is enrolling?  Employee only, family, etc.

We provide an excel census file to you as part of engaging with DSPBC for you to upload the completed census. You may also be given an option to download and provide standard ADP or Paycom payroll reports to provide to DSPBC, and we can (in some circumstances) prepare your Census for you for review and approval.

While it can vary insurer to insurer, we shoot for a week (5 business days) from a completed census of your employees.  

Most DSPs determine their contribution amount based on Employee Only Coverage and employees would be responsible for the additional cost to enroll any eligible legal dependents. Legal dependent would include spouse, domestic partner, legal dependent children.

For small group and Prime Benefits Solution, 50% - 75% of the employee only coverage for the lowest cost medical plan is the starting point and absolute minimum insurance carriers require. In most cases this would meet the affordability portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) On average, our participating DSP’s contribute 63% of the Employee coverage  (which comes out to an average contribution of $283 per Employee participating), and the DSPs with the best employee retention overall contribute 75% or more.  We strongly encourage DSPs to contribute more than the minimum as the data strongly suggests better employee retention when Delivery Associates have good financial support for the DSP provided healthcare insurance. 

Part of the ACA addresses affordability of benefits.  ACA applies to all groups that have an average of 50+ full time eligible employees throughout a calendar year. To meet the ACA affordability requirement employees cannot pay more than 9.78% (this is 2020’s requirement and the percentage changes each year) of their monthly household income. Employers (DSP) are not privy to employee household income, so the rule of thumb is to base affordability on the employee’s salary. Employers can be fined for not meeting this ACA requirement, particularly if you have 50 full time employees or more.

The DSPBC takes your census, and confirms we have all the proper components.  We then task our specialist ICHRA fulfillment partner, Take Command Health (TCH), to help you finalize your ICHRA funding amounts (confirm compliance), electronically establish your ICHRA Account, and activate enrollment and notification processes to your employees.

Employer Process

• The ICHRA set up process is a 15-30-minute onboarding experience.
• See this link for an easy 2 minute video on ICHRAs that your employees will see as part of their notification of ICHRA eligibility    https://www.takecommandhealth.com/intro-to-ichra
• Provide some basic DSP information
• Provide employee census
• Confirm contribution strategies
• Electronically sign forms (this is a crucial step required to trigger employee invitations and meet Amazon compliance)
• You’re company’s Special Enrollment Period (SEP) will begin and last for 60 days when you first launch.  
• Set up your monthly ICHRA administration fee paid to Take Command Health ($15 or $30 PEPM).
• You will be charged the PEPM amount until employees go into the system and either elect coverage, show proof of coverage or waive coverage.  It is KEY to have employees complete this process. 

Note:  After your Special Enrollment Period (60 days) If less than 30% participation in your Take Command Health supported ICHRA, TCH will invoice for a minimum monthly fee equal to 30% of your full time eligible employees. 

To see the Employer ICHRA Set up Process  https://www.takecommandhealth.com/ichra-administration 

Employee Process

• Employee received invitation to the Take Command Health portal including this video https://takecommandhealth.wistia.com/medias/b9qxy8zwzw
• Employee logs into the TCH portal to identify their personal benefit needs
• Employee shops for their preferred plan online at TCH and purchases or waives coverage
• Employees upload proof of coverage (paid invoice)
• Employees have 60 days within the company’s launch of the ICHRA solution, to provide proof of coverage, elect new coverage or waive the coverage.

Employee gets reimbursed monthly up to your agreed contribution support amount.  They can be reimbursed for a previous month, as long as you offered coverage for ICHRA, once they show proof of coverage.

We recommend setting it up as a tax-free reimbursement line item, but the article has more details and even some specific instructions by payroll provider. Here is a help article about that.

It is completely up to the DSP when to receive monthly report. It is highly encouraged to run reimbursement statements on the 1st of the month, so employees are reimbursed to pay their monthly premiums in a timely manner. The reimbursements should be the same each month since premiums do not change until renewal.

Yes, if you are still within your 60 Special Enrollment window, or if it is still Open Enrollment.

Yes!  DSPBC will only quote qualified Affordable Care Act plans and are trained on your contract requirements.

The biggest challenge is meeting participation requirements to install medical benefits.  In Group insurance, almost all carriers require 50-75% percent of eligible employees to participate (enroll) in order for the Group Insurance to be placed.  When you don’t meet participation requirements, your quotes can be withdrawn and employees will be without coverage.  This may put you in harms way with your Amazon contract.  

Here are some steps to help increase participation

• Provide enough time for employees to participate in Open Enrollment.  We recommend 10 days.   
• The higher the monthly contribution towards employee health insurance, the higher the participation.  If you’re only supporting the minimum contribution, you will likely have lower enrollment and may have trouble securing group benefits.
• Communication is KEY!  Talk it up to all Delivery Associates.  DSPBC sends out multiple email reminders, but we can’t force an employee to click on the benefits enrollment link and complete the process.
• Every full time eligible employee should go through benefits enrollment!   It is important for everyone to take an action in the system.  Our system is equipped to capture the reasons employees waive coverage.  If they have coverage under spouse, or parents plan, or through some other program, these “valid waivers” may help improve your %’s towards the required minimum participation requirements with the carriers.

No.  From the insurer’s standpoint, that person that just doesn’t want coverage would still be benefits eligible.

First, you’re required under the DSP contract to set up ACA qualified medical insurance and offer to all full-time employees under your Amazon DSP contract, and to do so within 60 days of starting operations, even if you are less than 50 employees.  When you as an Employer set up an ACA medical insurance program that is both Affordable (meets minimum ER Contribution requirements) and meets the Minimum Coverage Requirements (which are all the Plans provided by the DSPBC, both ICHRA and Group), Employees are no longer eligible for subsidies on the Federal/State Exchanges.  If an Employee buys coverage on the Individual Exchange, and collects a subsidy, the employee (and you as Employer) can have issues and fines from the IRS/Department of Labor.
 
 Second, even without the Amazon Contract requirement, the vast majority of DSPs quickly exceed the 50 full time (or equivalent) hurdle for being required under the Affordable Care Act to provide Affordable, Minimum Coverage to full time employees.  As an Applicable Large Employer (ALE), you’re required to offer coverage, and when you do so, the Employee loses subsidy eligibility for Federal/State Exchanges.  If you as an ALE do not offer coverage, AND an employee goes to the Exchange and buys coverage with a subsidy, you as an ALE will possibly be subject to material fines (up to $2,700 per person, above your first 30).  

Yes.   Nationally, the average Employee Only coverage for a Bronze Plan is $6,400 or $533 per month but Medical insurance costs varies by state, and many times by zip code.
 
 

Sometimes the same or equivalent insurance plans from the same insurer can be less expensive in the Group Insurance marketplace vs. Individual Health Insurance marketplace (like from the Exchanges) and vice versa.  The aggregation of DSP buying power for DSPs with 30+ employees in the Prime Benefits Solutions adds a third choice.  This is why the DSPBC will discuss all options with you so you can make a well-informed decision.  

Example of how costs vary across states and between Group and Individual Marketplace, based on a 27-year-old enrolled in a Bronze plan.

A welcome email is sent from yourbenefitscenter@decisely.com to create a password.  Your username is the email address provided in the census process.

DSP owners have a designated Client Engagement Manager, chat capability during working hours and our CAST support team.  Hours Monday – Friday 8am EST to 8pm EST 

1. via email: cast@decisely.com 
2. phone: 833-240-7167
3. Employer only: Chat via the Decisely portal:  app.decisely.com/user/sign in and click on the purple chat box in the lower right of the screen from your dashboard.

Decisely platform is a recruit to retire platform, allowing the employer to recruit, onboard, enroll, offboard all in one system.   Our primary role at  DSPBC is to handle the benefits sourcing, administration, and enrollment of benefits.  One of the most popular services is Decisely Recruiter.  You can post up to three positions on 40+ free job boards.  This service is included in the platform fees or Association fees.  Other useful services are available to you in your portal like unlimited e-verify, Work Opportunity Tax Credit options, add on 401k, IRAs to name a few.  If you have any interest in the additional features, please feel free to discuss with your Sales Consultant or Client Engagement Manager.   Below are  videos on the expansive value of the Decisely Platform at your fingertips.
 
 DSP/MM Onboarding:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2BQDOtM5TY&feature=emb_title

DSP/MM Recruiter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da3zD8fiIYA&feature=emb_title

You do not have to create an account; however, we recommend you create an account since it will be the best way to review your credit card history.

DSP will receive an email with a link to Chargebee (our 3^rd party vendor) to set up payment. Once payment is set up, future payments will autopay.

• Platform fee invoicing will occur around the 15^th of each month and billed a month in arrears.
• ADP integration invoicing will occur monthly around the 15^th of each month.

You will receive an email invoice from Decisely Insurance Services with a link to the Decisely online payments service. Click on the link to pay with your credit or debit card. It’s a simple process.

Yes – it is a PCI Service Provider Level 1, which is the highest grade of payment processing security. You can rest assured that your payment information is safe and secure.

Check your spam or junk folder first because it might have landed there. If you still don’t see it, let us know and we’ll make sure you get it.

The DSP Benefits Center provides benefit options, benefits platform and broker services.  Currently, the platform fee is not an optional payment, as it covers these important services. The Platform fee was approved by Amazon as part of selecting Woodruff Sawyer-Decisely as the new program managers and administrators of the DSP Benefits Center and is an approved fee under contract.  

ADP users – Decisely is integrated with ADP payroll.  

Process:

1. DSP authorizes Woodruff Sawyer/Decisely access to payroll (see pdf instructions below)
2. Integration fee is a pass-through cost of $1.00 Per Employee Per Month (PEPM) and is added to your Decisely Platform fee for ADP’s charge to us
3. ADP and Decisely assist DSP with the integration process
4. Confirmation email and DSP acknowledgment required
5. Invoicing will occur after activation is completed.  DSP will receive an email with link to Chargeebee (our 3^rd party vendor) to set up payment.

Click Here for ADP Authorization Instructions

Paycom users – Paycom does not fully integrate their system with any brokers.  Therefore, Decisely is not permitted to integrate with Paycom payroll but we can access your PayCom data with the proper authorization from you in order to keep your benefits systems up to date and capturing new employees (to timely offer benefits), terminate employees (to keep your medical insurance bills accurate), and process life event changes (like getting married, having kids) that can affect benefits. 

Process:

1. DSP authorizes Woodruff Sawyer/Decisely access to payroll authorization via email back to Decisely contact: 
   • Dear Paycom – I (client contact name) is authorizing Decisely to access Company name paycom payroll system to generate reports and download census data.   They are my Benefits Administrator.    My Paycom client code is (they add their 5 digit alpha-numeric code here).  Thank you – Name of person that is authorized with Paycom at the client.    
2. Decisely will download DSP census information weekly to update your Decisely portal with employee updates (new hire, termination, life event changes)
3. New hires will be invited to the portal to take an action in enrolling or waiving benefits as soon as they are updated in our system.  
4. Every Monday DSP will receive a deduction change file from yourbenefitscenter@decisely.com for you to upload to your Paycom payroll system.

Contact our CAST support team.  Hours Monday – Friday 8am EST to 8pm EST 

1. via email: cast@decisely.com 
2. phone: 833-240-7167

No, the insurance carriers bill you directly.   You pay the insurance companies directly, as billed.  Timely payments are critical to avoid cancellation by carrier for non-payment of premium.  Autopay is recommended.