OnlineBenefits Enhances Online Information Platform

December 6, 2002

OnlineBenefits Inc. of Uniondale, N.Y. announced an enhancement to its Benergy communication platform that enables companies to easily gather and publicize the benefit plan facts required by the Department of Labor (DOL).

Often employers regard the boilerplate insurance booklets distributed by benefit providers as complete summary plan descriptions (SPDs). Because of the generic nature of these documents, they typically lack certain mandatory disclosure items, such as ERISA rights, claims procedures, COBRA and HMO information.

Benergy’s new “required information wrapper” fills the gap. It guides a company through the process of compiling and organizing DOL-required information into a web page that wraps around a benefit summary to generate a complete SPD. To create the wrapper, an employer steps through an online questionnaire and enters information such as employer ID number, plan
sponsor contact information, etc. OnlineBenefits also supplies sample language that an employer can edit as needed, including wording for ERISA rights, and claims procedures.

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