Businessolver® Client Newsletter
08/05/2025
MyChoice® Accounts Member Enhancements Coming in August
HSA features and card activation updates
MyChoice Accounts members are getting a great new set of features at the end of August. First, we are providing more ways for members to activate new debit cards – this will now available online, via the mobile app, and IVR. HSA members are in for some upgrades too, as they will have another way to grow their funds via our “Save” category, which allows them to invest in a money market fund and even set up auto sweep to reach their savings goals. Finally, HSA members will also be able to designate and update beneficiaries online via the member portal. We walked through these updates and more at our July 29 MyChoice Accounts product update. Check out the recording and the resources in the Tech with Heart series hub or talk with your client team to get the latest and greatest news.
Verification Status Tracker
Following each annual enrollment season, we review where we could provide greater support to members within the Benefitsolver® platform. One common trend is that members want better visibility into the verification process. Our new experience will significantly improve the process and visibility for verification within Benefitsolver.
- Action Required Card: After enrollment, members will be prompted to upload documentation. The new interface clearly shows which dependents need verification and what documents are required.
- My Tasks Widget: Members will receive notifications as usual, but now a task will appear in their Action Required Widget. This task links directly to the new verification experience within their profile.
- Dependents Page: Clicking the task takes members to their dependents page, where they can view each dependent’s verification status and required documents.
- Uploading Documents: Members can upload documents directly from each dependent’s profile, with clear due dates and submission buttons.
- Status Tracking: Once submitted, documentation status updates in real time—from “Submitted” to “Verified” or “Reviewed.” If more info is needed, it will be clearly indicated.
- Final Approval: Once all documents are approved, the status updates accordingly, giving members a clear view of their verification progress.
This new functionality will go live in Q3. If you have custom communications for verification, we will turn this on in waves to ensure we can update communications at the same time we turn on the functionality.
SofiaSM Updates
Live this week—Sofia’s Agentic Workflow will bring more personalized, secure, and accurate support to your members by using specialized agents as part of a governed workflow. All of this will help her deliver a better experience and more natural conversations. Previously, about 50% of Sofia’s answers were assisted by large language models. Now, our Agentic workflow will take that to 100%.
Sofia will run through a few places to formulate these answers:
- Knowledge base to pull information from Benefitsolver
- Member’s reference center and personalized member data like name, dependent info, and election details
- Member’s chat history
Sofia can now answer follow up questions without clarification and understand the context of a member’s question. After that? She will package up the info needed from all these places and send back a thoughtful, detailed answer!
Unfortunately, Sofia can’t do it all on her own. It’s important that you update your reference center with timely, correct information so she can in turn provide that correct information to your members. Join us on September 9 for our Reference Center Best Practices training to learn more about the importance of keeping your information fresh and how to do just that.
To learn more about how Sofia keeps leveling up, read our recent press release.
Member Services Updates
We’re upgrading a few Members Services items that we’re excited to share with you. For starters, we’re creating a better IVR experience for members calling in. Clients can choose which vendors are offered to their members and in what order. If external 401(k) provides or retirement services are a hot topic for your population, you can put those at the top of your list.
Second, we’re creating an Agentic IVR. This upgrade will reduce caller frustration and enable better self-service by helping members get where they need to go faster. Members will have a quicker time-to-resolution and experience a more natural, personalized experience. Our Agentic IVR is still in development, but we plan to roll it out after hours in October before deploying it to all clients, full time in 2026.
For more detail about these upgrades, watch our Q3 Product & Compliance Update.
Level Up Your Benefits Strategy with No-Cost Pinnacle Partners
Voluntary benefits that employees want
Our latest Empathy and Benefits Insights Reports showed Gen Z employees highly value “delighter” benefits, like financial wellness tools, family benefits, and pet insurance. Gen Z wants benefits that support their whole lives, not just health coverage.
Enter Pets Best and Recoop Disaster Insurance. Two Businessolver Pinnacle Partners that are fully integrated into the Benefitsolver platform, 100% employee-paid, more affordable than standalone options, and the best part—require no cost or tech lift from you!
With 2/3 of U.S. households owning pets, offering pet insurance like Pets Best shows you care—without a hefty price tag. And, with rising extreme weather events, offering a benefit like Recoop Disaster Insurance can make all the difference for your employees.
Interested in adding Pets Best or Recoop Disaster Insurance? Reach out to your client service lead and we’ll get started!
What’s New in Compliance?
New Illinois Requirement Expands Dependent Coverage to Parents and Stepparents
Starting with plan years that begin after January 1, 2026, fully-insured health plans in Illinois that offer dependent coverage must also make that coverage available to an insured’s parent or stepparent—provided they meet the federal definition of a “qualifying relative” and live within the plan’s service area. This change applies to any group or individual policy that is issued, amended, delivered, or renewed after that date.
The new rule does not apply to specialized health care service plans, Medicare supplement insurance, hospital-only policies, accident-only policies, or specified disease insurance.
HR and benefits teams should begin reviewing their plan documents and coordinating with insurance carriers to ensure compliance ahead of the effective date.
Read the new requirement for more detail.
ACA Excise Taxes set to Increase for Plan Years Starting in 2026
Beginning with plan years starting in 2026, employers subject to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer mandate will face higher excise tax penalties for noncompliance. These penalties are tied to a base amount—originally $2,000 and $3,000 under Internal Revenue Code § 4980H(c)(1) and (b)(1)—and are adjusted annually based on the premium adjustment percentage set by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
On June 25, 2025, HHS published the premium adjustment percentage for 2026. As a result, the updated penalty amounts for the calendar year 2026 are:
- $3,340 for employers who fail to offer minimum essential coverage to at least 95% of full-time employees (§ 4980H(c)(1)).
- $5,010 for employers who offer coverage that is either unaffordable or does not meet minimum value standards (§ 4980H(b)(1)).
Upcoming Sessions
TODAY at 10 a.m. CT: Businessolver Training // Reviewing Rates
Reviewing your rates is a critical step to ensuring quality and accuracy throughout the employee experience. At this training, our experts will take you behind the scenes of our rates process and demo the platform and the benefits of our repeatable process.
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Thurs., August 7 at 10 a.m. CT: Businessolver Training // QA Testing & Signoff
This training is designed to ensure you are set up for success for your enrollment’s annual debut. Our experts will walk through our user acceptance testing process, templates to test your AE setup, and more. Don’t miss this timely training!
Tues., August 12 at 10 a.m. CT: Businessolver Training // AE Change Files – Exports & Payroll
Join our experts for this training where we’ll take you under the hood of Benefitsolver to show you how we process exports and payroll. We’ll demo our dashboards and schedulers, explain how we track file statuses and exports, and much more!
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Thurs., August 14 at 10 a.m. CT: Businessolver Training // Year End Processing
As we ramp up for another AE season, it's also time to think about how to prepare for your upcoming end-of-year processing. Join our experts as we dive into how to prepare for elections to transition into current state and how we make that information available to you in Benefitsolver.
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Tues., August 19 at 10 a.m. CT: Businessolver Roundtable // AE Season: Strategies for Driving Enrollment Outcomes
Join this roundtable to hear from your client peers about the good, the bad, and the ugly on getting ready for AE. We'll share learnings and wins and how to clear the roadblocks for a successful AE season. Come ready to learn and share. Plus, we'll walk you through using your Benefits Insights Dashboards to get real time data before, during, and after enrollment.
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Thurs., August 21 at 10 a.m. CT: MyChoice Accounts Training // MyChoice Accounts – AE Processing
It’s time for all things annual enrollment for MyChoice Accounts. We’re introducing some new and innovative processes to help you during enrollment time. Join our experts for this training to make sure we have everything ship-shape before enrollment to ensure a smooth transition into the next plan year.
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A Peek at Our Pinnacle Partners: An End-to-End Family Care Solution
Grayce helps with medical and legal needs, emotional support, and more
What if there were a benefit that could help foster peak performance and retention amongst your members by solving for their full spectrum of care challenges at home—whether that’s starting a family, navigating end-of-life care, or every other significant milestone in between? Well, that’s exactly what Grayce offers. No other care solution can match the depth of support that their master’s degree-level Care Partners provide. Informed by more than five years of experience in the field, these Care Partners will provide expert guidance and extensive concierge services to take the burden off your members.
Best of all? This solution is easily accessible within Benefitsolver–where members already go to activate on their benefits. Together, we’ll make full use of your existing benefits ecosystem, increasing appropriate utilization of relevant programs by 58%.