HighRoads QuickSPD Eases Department of Labor Compliance for SMB Customers

HighRoads, the company providing employers – for the first time – complete control over their health care costs and compliance, today announced QuickSPD, an intuitive online service for health insurance brokers that quickly develops ERISA compliant summary plan descriptions (SPD) for small and midsize businesses (SMB). The automated, self-serve solution empowers brokers to create and store SPDs for their customers without the painstaking, manual processes and legal fees that traditionally cost brokerage firms hours of lost productivity and money.

“The Department of Labor requires all employers, regardless of size, to distribute summary plan descriptions of any benefit plan offered to employees,” said Michael Byers, president and CEO, HighRoads. “And, many companies are out of compliance with this regulation. Now, with the new presidential administration looking to enact health care reform, the Department of Labor will likely be looking to collect fines from employers that are out of compliance. This could cause a wave of SPD activity for brokerage firms who are simply ill prepared to absorb the added manual processes and ERISA legal fees that have traditionally been a part of SPD development. QuickSPD has been developed to automate the SPD process so that brokers can save both time and money while delivering the compliance their customers require.”

QuickSPD is a self-service, “fill-in-the-blanks” SPD creation service that enables brokers to easily create and store SPDs for their SMB customers. The online solution automatically generates employer-specific Microsoft Word or PDF SPD files for distribution to company employees. QuickSPD offers 14 ERISA compliant SPD templates, a real-time dashboard with update alerts and online storage – all backed by the expertise HighRoads has acquired by automating and storing SPDs for the largest employers in the world.

HighRoads QuickSPD templates are updated annually to comply with Department of Labor ERISA regulations eliminating the need for brokers or employers to conduct a legal review. In addition, QuickSPD brokers benefit from the HighRoads central repository for easy access, storage and maintenance of client SPDs.

HighRoads’ QuickSPD offers brokerage firms automated SPD creation and management choice. The online service:

• Enables client compliance
• Provides a competitive differentiator
• Offers real-time visibility to all client SPDs through a dashboard
• Is low cost

“SPD development can be a very lengthy and tedious undertaking requiring many costly hours and resources,” said David Martin, Employee Benefits Practice Leader, Hub International Midwest Limited. “QuickSPD will automate this time consuming process enabling us to rapidly ensure that our clients maintain ERISA compliance while keeping our administrative costs low. We pride ourselves in delivering superior service and we anticipate enhancing that service through QuickSPD.”

Pricing and Availability

QuickSPD is available to brokerage firms now with pricing starting at $400 per client SPD per year. For more information, please visit: www.quickspd.com.

About HighRoads

The world’s largest employers – such as General Dynamics, Honeywell, IBM, Kraft, Staples and Boeing – choose HighRoads to gain complete control over their health care costs and compliance. With HighRoads’ service, employers – for the first time -- have online access to benefits plan information and pricing, competitive benefits benchmarks, and complete benefits supply chain management. The privately-held company is headquartered in Woburn, Mass.