Equifax Workforce Solutions Helps Streamline Compliance with New ACA Management Essentials Solution

CHICAGO and ST. LOUIS, Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- At the 19th Annual HR Tech Conference -- Equifax Workforce Solutions, a leader in human resource, analytics and verification services, and a business unit of Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX), announced, today, the launch of its ACA Management Essentials Solution. Offering the same powerful capabilities as its enterprise-level ACA Management Platform, Essentials is a self-service solution to help businesses of all sizes maximize compliance with Affordable Care Act (ACA) regulations.

"The implementation of the ACA has fundamentally changed the way employers look at compliance and benefits," said Kristin Lewis, senior director of Product Management for Equifax Workforce Solutions. "No matter their size or complexity, businesses need to leverage tools to help them determine employee healthcare eligibility, achieve compliance and deliver effective reporting. Implementing an ACA solution was previously out of reach for many small to mid-size businesses due to the cost and complexity associated with such a project. Essentials removes those barriers, allowing companies to adopt a compliance solution that fits their needs."

Having managed more than 37 million employees on its enterprise solution, Equifax is familiar with the challenges HR professionals face around managing ACA, and developed Essentials to help them overcome these obstacles. In introducing Essentials, the company provides businesses with a streamlined experience to help them manage ACA compliance and meet IRS reporting deadlines. Essentials also demystifies the complexity around ACA and enables employers to get up to speed quickly and make well-informed business decisions to maximize compliance.

An intuitive configuration wizard empowers users to easily set up Essentials and be up and running quickly—usually in a matter of hours or minutes. Designed for use by HR or benefits professionals, it is easy to implement, complete with a user-friendly interface to provide maximum benefit from its first day in use. The result is an advanced capability that enables businesses to foster a more efficient, data-driven approach to ACA compliance.

Created to meet the needs of small and mid-sized businesses, key features of the ACA Management Essentials Solution include:

• Data Management: Easily upload and validate pay, benefits and leave data from any number of source systems to instantly view calculations. The data quality dashboard makes it easier than ever to identify and troubleshoot potential data quality issues – the most common challenge employers face when it comes to ACA management.
• Eligibility and Affordability Calculations: The solution automates complex ACA calculations so employers can determine employee eligibility for benefits affordability of coverage.
• Enhanced Reporting and Analytics: Essentials offers a broad library of reports designed to help clients easily understand and distribute ACA-related information.
• Ongoing Compliance Monitoring and Alerts: Compliance dashboards and automated alerts help identify potential risks so that users can proactively take action to avoid penalties.
• Form 1094/1095 Distribution: Essentials populates and sends Form 1095 to employees and enables electronic consent and access through the Equifax Tax Form Management portal. It also manages the submission of Forms 1094 and 1095 to the IRS.

"As employers face numerous changes and challenges introduced by the ACA, more companies of all sizes have come to rely on our organization to help them in their efforts to reduce costs, minimize risk and emerge successfully," said Erik Trusler, senior vice president of Marketing for Equifax Workforce Solutions. "With the ACA Management Essentials Solution, we continue to stay ahead of our clients' needs, introducing an industry-first innovation to transform how companies of any size manage the crucial workforce tasks necessary for ACA compliance. The introduction of Essentials is the latest step in our growth plan to identify the most pressing challenges facing businesses today and create the innovations to meet those needs."

Additional information about the ACA Management Essentials Solution can be accessed at: http://www.equifax.com/assets/WFS/aca_management_essentials_solution_ps.pdf.

About Equifax

Equifax powers the financial future of individuals and organizations around the world. Using the combined strength of unique trusted data, technology and innovative analytics, Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading provider of insights and knowledge that helps its customers make informed decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its databases include employee data contributed from more than 5,000 employers. Equifax Workforce Solutions, an Equifax business unit, is a leading provider of human resource compliance, analytics and verification technology and services.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500® Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,200 employees worldwide.

Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Ranked 13 on the American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2015); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2015); named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes' World's 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015). For more information, visit www.equifax.com/business or www.equifax.com.

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SOURCE Equifax Inc.

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