Kansas Department of Administration

15-P-005 COBRAGuard Implementation for Health Benefits in SHARP (Issued Setpember 12, 2014)

Informational Circular No.: 15-p-005


Effective Date: Payroll Period Ending September 13, 2014

Contact Name: Earl Brynds

Ph: (785) 296-5376

Email: (Earl.Brynds@da.ks.gov)

Approval:    Nancy Ruoff (Original Signature on File)
Summary: Transition form SHARP to COBRAGuard for Administration of State Employee Health Benefits

 

The Health Care Commission has approved using a third party vendor, COBRAGuard, to administer state employee health benefits from the COBRAGuard Membership Administration Portal (MAP) system. MAP becomes the source system for maintaining the state employee health benefits replacing SHARP.  This change is effective beginning September 1, 2014.   Open enrollment for 2015 employee health benefits will also occur in MAP during October, 2014. 

Therefore, starting with the September 13, 2014 pay end date, paid on September 26, 2014, COBRAGuard will send to SHARP via a bi-weekly interface file from MAP, the employee health benefit deductions and employer contribution information to load directly to employee paychecks.  The current Benefit Plan/Deduction codes in SHARP will continue to be used for paycheck deductions for the remainder of 2014.  To accommodate Regent agencies who want to simplify the number of valid deduction codes, the following new Benefit Plans/Deduction codes are being added in SHARP effective 8/31/2014:

PLAN TYPE BEN PLAN/DEDUCTION CODE DESCRIPTION SHORT DESCRIPTION
10 GHIEEB Medical-Before Tax Medical
10 GHIEEA Medical - After Tax Medical
11 DNTLBT Dental-Before Tax Dental
11 DNTLAT Dental-After Tax Dental
14 VISONB Vision - Before Tax Vision
14 VISONA Vision - After Tax Vision
67 HSADR Health Sav Acct-ER-Dep HSA-ER Dep
67 HSASR Health Sav Acct-ER-Single HSA-ER Sgl
6Y HSAEE Health Savings Acct – Single HSA-Single
6Z HSAED Health Savings Acct –Dependent HSA-Depend


Any updates or changes to employee health benefits required to be made between Aug. 27 and Sept. 15, 2014, will need to be made in both the MAP system and SHARP by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Division of Health Care Finance since the Sept. 12, 2014 paycheck will calculate using the health benefits data stored in SHARP.  After Sept. 15, any required updates or changes to employee health benefits data for a time period from Sept. 15, 2014 forward will need to be made in the MAP system.  Any changes to employee health benefits for a time period prior to Sept. 15, 2014 will manually be calculated and entered into MAP by KDHE.

In addition, beginning with the Sept. 26, 2014 paycheck, there will no longer be any Employer Flexible Spending Account (FSA) nontaxable contributions (5.74 percent of employee deduction) processed on employee paychecks in SHARP.  Regents will also no longer be required to send in the Employer FSA contributions on their pay detail files.  These employer FSA contributions will be processed outside of SHARP by KDHE.

For SHARP payroll processing, any necessary prior period adjustments for health benefits will be generated out of MAP and sent to payroll to process on employee paychecks.  For example, if an employee does not receive a paycheck for a specific pay period in which health insurance should have been deducted, the MAP system will submit the current period and the ‘missed deduction’ for the prior period on the next paycheck, resulting in a double-deduction for health insurance for that employee.

Any adjustments to employee health benefits for a time period prior to Sept. 15, 2014 will be manually calculated and entered in MAP by KDHE.  These lump-sum adjustment amounts will then be sent to SHARP from MAP via the bi-weekly interface file for payroll processing. Agencies should be aware that adjustments for multiple pay periods may be submitted as one lump-sum adjustment amount to SHARP from the MAP system.  Details as to the periods covered by the lump-sum adjustment amount must be obtained from the MAP system.  The existing payroll advance process in SHARP will continue to be utilized.  This process advances funds and establishes a payroll arrearage to cover the cost of certain health benefits when an employee’s gross pay will not cover the full benefit amount.

The Office of Systems Management, Payroll Systems Team will make the necessary updates to the SHARP system.  Regent’s institutions are responsible for ensuring that the changes required to accurately calculate payroll following the transition to COBRAGuard are made in their respective systems effective with the payroll period noted above.

SG:NTR:ewb

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