State Controller’s Office (SCO) Monthly File Submission Overview

Welcome to the SCO Monthly File Submission Overview. We have created this overview to help you understand what ACA data to submit on your files, as well as how and when to submit your files to SCO.

Overview

This overview will cover:

• The Purpose of Monthly File Submissions

• Overview of the ACAS

• ACAS Codes

• Common file submission scenarios

• Compliance reports and where to access useful resources

Monthly File Overview

Why do we send monthly files?

The purpose of the monthly file submission is to track employee health benefit eligibility as required by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The ACA Employer Shared Responsibility provisions, effective January 2015, mandates that large employers file annual reports with the IRS. The annual reports must identify the offer and acceptance or decline of health coverage to full-time employees and their eligible dependents or the State may be penalized. The monthly files capture this required information.

What is the Affordable Care Act System?

The Affordable Care Act System (ACAS) database is the official tracking and reporting repository of ACA required information for Civil Service, California State University (CSU), Judicial Council (JUD), District Agricultural Association (DAA) and Common Law employees.

The information in the ACAS database by year end is what is used by the State Controller’s Office to report your employee health benefit statuses to the IRS.

Since the information in the ACAS provided by your office comes from file submissions, it is important that this information is submitted timely and accurately.

Next, let’s take a look at how the monthly file impacts the ACAS.

Affordable Care Act System (ACAS) Overview

• The ACAS is a system used for tracking employee health benefit status information.

• The ACAS is used as a tool to report employee healthcare status to the IRS.

The information received from the monthly file transmission is what feeds the ACAS with employee health benefit information.

This health benefit information must be accurate or the State of California will face penalties. The employee health benefit information in the ACAS is in turn transmitted to the IRS annually and sent out via 1095-C’s to eligible employees.

Now that you know why the Monthly file process is important, let’s examine what data is included in the monthly file.

Monthly File Overview • The monthly files are created from an Excel template, which will be transferred

via Secure Mail to SCO.

• The monthly files contains 22 columns of data, we will go though each column left to right and explain what data to submit.

The monthly files are created from an Excel template, which will be transferred via Secure Mail to SCO.

Note: Employee records should only be submitted on the monthly file for employees who have hours worked during that pay period. If an employee has no hours worked on that pay period and does not need updates to their record otherwise, do not include the employee on the monthly file.

For the purpose of this training, we will number each column left to right and go into detail to explain when you will need to enter data to submit.

Monthly File Overview

Column 1: The employee’s Social Security number. When entering the SSN ensure there are no special characters, such as hyphens and the SSN is 9 numeric characters.

Column 2: The employee’s last name.

Column 3: The employee’s first name and middle initial.

If you are unable to verify the SSN in SCOPROD, the first and last name on the file is spelled the same way as it is listed in SCOPROD. When entering the first and last name ensure there are no special characters, such as periods or commas.

This information in columns 1, 2, & 3 will be entered with every submission.

Monthly File Overview

Columns 4: The position sequence number will be entered with every submission for Civil Service Employees, but is not required for DAA or Common Law employees. If able to verify position sequence in SCOPROD, it should match the sequence associated with the position number always two digits (examples: 01, 03).

Column 5: The employees position number, required with every submission. DAA positions should have an asterisk in the 7th position of the position number, Common Law positions should have an asterisk in the 11th position of the position number, and Civil Service positions should not have an asterisk in the position number. The position number should always be 13 characters long. DAA positions should always lead with 014, and end with the DAA “agency” code. Common Law positions should lead with the correct employing agency’s agency code.

Monthly File Overview

Column 6: ACA Void Indicator – “V”, not required with every submission, complete only if an ACA Status Code was entered incorrectly and needs to be voided. Only one character is acceptable in this field.

Column 7: ACA Status Code. Only two characters are acceptable in the ACA Status Code field. The ACA Status Code field must be used with Effective Date field

Column 8: ACA Transaction Effective Date. This field is always 8 characters long. Two characters for month, two characters for day, and four characters for year. Example: 02282020

The ACA Status Code & ACA Transaction Effective Date are not required with every submission, complete only if an ACA Status Code needs to be entered for that month.

Monthly File Overview

Column 9: Health Coverage Notice Date, is no longer required, this field should be left blank.

Column 10: Pay Period. This field is always four characters long. Two characters for month and two characters for year. Example: 0320.

Column 11: Time Paid Days, this field should always be two characters long. This field should always be 00 and time paid hours should be used.

Column 12: Time Paid Hours. This field is always 5 numeric characters long. Example: 172.33 hours should be entered as 17233. No employees should have over 400 hours in any given month.

The data in columns 10, 11, & 12 will be entered with every submission if applicable. If an employee has not worked hours for the month, you do not need to include them on the monthly file unless you are providing information to update their ACAS code, in which case these columns will be left blank.

Monthly File Overview

Column 13: Lowest Cost Employee Share for Employee Only Coverage: This column is no longer used and should always be left blank.

Column 14: Health Deduction. Only one character is acceptable: “Y” for yes, indicating the employee has a deduction. If there was no deduction then this field should be left blank. This field must be used with Dependent Level and Deduction Pay Period fields.

Column 15: Dependent Level. This field is always two characters long. Example: 01. This field must be used with Health Deduction and Deduction Pay Period fields.

Column 16: Deduction Pay Period. This field is always four numeric characters long. Example: 0320. This field should only be entered for the month that the file is for. This field must be used with Health Deduction and Dependents Level fields.

This data in columns 14, 15, & 16 are only applicable for CS employees and will be entered with every submission when a health deduction is taken.

Monthly File Overview Column 17 through 19: Employee Street Address, City/State, & Zip Code. This data is only entered when a new employee is added or an employee’s address has changed. These fields should only be submitted one time, then only report future changes. When keying this data ensure there are no special characters such as hyphens or commas.

Note: Columns 17, 18, & 19 are entered for DAA and Common Law employees only.

Column 20: The ‘Record Type’ field must be 6 alpha characters that equals either “DELETE”, “SSNCHG”, “ACTIVE”, “NEWEMP”, or “RETURN”. This data will be entered with every submission to reflect the employee’s current status. Column 21: Old SSN. This field will be nine characters long. Example: 123456789. This field should only be used to correct incorrect reporting of the SSN from a previous month.

Monthly File Overview

Column 22: EIN. This field will be entered with every submission. This field is 9 characters long. Example 123456789. The EIN is specific to the agency submitting the file and the number should be the same for all records on the file. No special characters, such as hyphens are allowed.

This completes the overview of data required for the monthly file. Next let us look at what events can prompt a Monthly File Update.

Monthly File Updates

Updates to ACAS Data

The State Controller’s Office pre-populated Civil Service DAA employees in the ACAS when the system was implemented. A batch process runs nightly to keep Civil Service employee records in sync with Employment History transactions that were keyed during that day into SCO systems. Therefore, there is always a one day lag before updated information is available in the ACAS. Because of this process, as well as the fact that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Human Resources personnel are keying ACA status code information for DAA Civil Service employees, DAAs do not need to send in every data field for every employee each month.

Data must be submitted using the monthly process to update the ACAS when the following events occur:

For Civil Service employees –

o The employee receives pay

o The employee has a monthly health benefit deduction taken

o The employee’s health benefit eligibility status changes

Monthly File Updates

For 119 Day and Common Law employees –

o Employee is hired or separated

o Employee’s social security number, name, or address changes

o The Health Coverage Notification is provided (optional field)

o The employee receives pay

Next we will cover ACAS Status codes…

ACAS Status Codes ACA Status Codes identify the status of an employee’s health benefits so the SCO can report accurate data to the Internal Revenue Service.

We will cover all 16 ACAS Status Codes, and go into detail on which code applies to which situations.

Note: For any employees with an asterisk in their position number, the 2A and 6A are the only acceptable codes to submit on the monthly file.

ACAS Status Codes

2A - used when an employee is not eligible for health benefits due to tenure or timebase. Effective date is the employee’s permitting event date or the first day of the month following the employee’s cancellation of health benefits due to the loss of health benefits eligibility.

2B - used when a permanent intermittent employee is appointed and must serve a control period before becoming eligible for health benefits. Effective the first day an employee must serve a control period before becoming eligible for health benefits.

2D - used for all newly health benefit eligible employees. This code is entered in ACAS to account for the time between the employee’s permitting event date and the earliest date that the employee would be eligible for health benefits. Effective date is the employee’s permitting event date.

ACAS Status Codes

1A - used to document an offer of employer-sponsored health benefits. Effective the first day of the month health coverage could be effective.

1B - used to document an offer of COBRA continuation coverage for an active employee. Effective the first day of the month following the cancellation of employer-sponsored health coverage.

1C - used to document an offer of COBRA continuation coverage for an active employee and their dependents (not spouse). Effective the first day of the month following the cancellation of employer-sponsored health coverage.

1D - used to document an offer of COBRA coverage for an active employee and their spouse (not dependents). Effective the first day of the month following the cancellation of employer-sponsored health coverage.

1E - used to document an offer of COBRA coverage for an active employee, their spouse, and dependents. Effective the first day of the month following the cancellation of employer-sponsored health coverage.

ACAS Status Codes

4A - used to document the decline of health benefits within 60 calendar days of the event that makes an employee health benefit eligible. Effective the first day of the month health coverage could be effective.

Note: The effective date of 1A and 4A will always be the same.

4B - used when an employee fails to return their health benefit form within 60 calendar days of the event that makes an employee health benefit eligible. Effective the 61st day following the permitting event date.

ACAS Status Codes

3A - used to document the acceptance of health benefits within 60 days of the event that makes an employee health benefit eligible. Effective the first day of the month health coverage begins.

3B - used to document a late acceptance of health benefits. Effective the first of the month after the employee returns the HBD-12 and has served the 90 day HIPPA waiting period.

ACAS Status Codes

5A - used to document when an employee’s health benefits are “administratively canceled” due to a loss of health benefit eligibility. Effective the last day of the month the employee’s health benefits are effective.

5B - used to document when an employee voluntarily cancels their health benefits. Effective the last day of the month the employee’s health benefits are effective.

5C - used to document the temporary suspension of an employee’s health benefits when the employee is temporarily separated and placed on some type of unpaid status. Effective the last day of the month the employee’s health benefits are effective.

ACAS Status Codes 6A - used when an employee permanently separates from any position. Effective the first day of the month following the date of the employee’s separation.

You will enter a 6A ACAS Status code when the employee is no longer working.

NOTE: The 6A ACAS Status code is effective the first day of the month following the date the employee separates.

This concludes the overview of the ACAS Status Codes. Please notify your SCO ACA support contact if you have any questions on which ACAS Status Code to use for your employee.

Monthly File Submission

The following data files will be sent and received by the SCO:

• Monthly ACA File

• Error Report File

• Monthly ACA Correction file

• Monthly Compliance Reports

Monthly File Submission.

ACA Monthly Excel files will be sent to SCO through a service called Secure Mail. Secure Mail allows files to be sent securely and confidentially.

Secure mail requires internet explorer 8 or later and Java 7 or later.

Error report files, monthly ACA correction files, and monthly ACA compliance reports will be sent via email with SSNs removed.

Please notify your SCO ACA support contact if you anticipate any issues.

Monthly File Submission

Step 1: Notify SCO you are ready to submit, receive secured link via email.

Step 2: Receive phone call from SCO with password.

Step 3: Login to the Secure Mail Account (https://eft.sco.ca.gov) using the credentials supplied.

Step 4: Click the ‘Upload’ icon located on the toolbar and select the file you wish to upload, or Drag and drop the file you wish to upload directly on the web page where you see the prompt.

Step 5: Once the upload is complete, send an email with a link to the uploaded file to your SCO ACA Support Contact.

Next we will discuss the correction process for the monthly files.

Correcting Errors If any records on submitted monthly files contain errors, your SCO ACA Support Contact will reach out to you with records to be corrected through and Error Report File. All errors listed on an Error Report File must be researched and resolved. In order to resolve the error, submit a corrected file sent via email with SSNs removed.

Correcting Errors

• In order to resolve the error, submit a corrected record file.

Tips for correcting errors:

• When an error is found in a record (one line of data), the entire record rejects. Due to this, the erroneous record should be sent back in its entirety with the appropriate correction(s) made.

• Send only those records which need correction. For example, the original file sent has 100 records (i.e., 100 rows of data) and errors are found on three of the 100 records. The correction file should contain a copy of the three records that had an error with corrected data in the appropriate field(s).

• One record may return multiple errors. When submitting the corrected record, ensure that all errors have been addressed.

• If you discover an error in the ACAS, submit the data requiring update, as well as the required fields

• If updates to payment data are needed, send in a new record with the updated information.

Correcting Errors

Self-identifying errors:

Some possible errors may not cause the record to reject, such as the example shown in which a single character is transposed in a name or address. In these instances, when the errors are self-identified, contact your SCO contact and follow the file correction procedures to ensure accurate data is submitted for your employees.

Please contact your SCO ACA Support contact if you have any questions regarding the error messages received on an error report file or how to correct an error.

Sending Corrections

See the Submitting Monthly ACA and Monthly ACA Correction Files for information regarding how to submit correction files.

Next let us review some special considerations…

Special Considerations

119 Day & Common Law Employees

The ACAS is the only place where the SCO maintains records for 119 Day & Common Law employees. Because of this, 119 Day & Common Law employees do not have SCO assigned position numbers. Use the following information to create each employee’s position number when submitting ACAS data for a 119 Day & Common Law employees.

First, let’s identify position numbers for 119 employees.

119 EE Position Numbers

Below is an example of how to create a position number for a 119 EE. Each 119 Day employee position number is 12 numeric characters and an asterisk (*) with no spaces

Example

014002*001802

014 - The first three digits are the Agency Number

002 - The fourth through sixth digits are Assigned District Number. DAA Assigned District Number can be found in Appendix D of the DAA & CL Data Submission Guide.

• *001 = The next four characters are assigned accordingly:

o One asterisk

o For each position that an employee holds, the number (beginning at ‘1’) will be increased by one. For example, if an employee holds two 119 Day positions with Orange County Fair, the first position would be designated as 019032*001832. The second position would be 019032*002832.

802 - The last three digits of your position number are the last three digits of the assigned Suffix Code. DAA Suffix codes can be found in the DAA Suffix code listing in Appendix D of the DAA & CL Data Submission Guide.

Common Law Position Numbers

Below is an example of how to create a position number for a 119 EE. Each 119 Day employee position number is 12 numeric characters and an asterisk (*) with no spaces

Example

5420150001*00

542 – The first three digits are the Agency Number

015 – The fourth through sixth digits are the Reporting Unit (or the three digit Agency Number if a Reporting Unit cannot be identified)

0001 – The next four characters are assigned accordingly:

o For each Common Law position that an employee holds within a department, the number (beginning at ‘1’) will be increased by one. For example, if an employee holds two Common Law positions with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – Agency Code 542, Reporting Unit 015 – the first position would be designated as 5420150001*00. The second position would be 5420150002*00.

*00 – The last three digits are an asterisk (*) followed by two zeroes (*00).

Special Consideration

Concurrent Employment

When an employee has more than one position and/or position sequence, each employing department must key a health benefit status code for each active position.

Next we will discuss compliance reports.

Compliance Reports

Reports have been developed to ensure that data in the ACAS has been input correctly, to help identify ACAS records that may have been missed, and to ensure that the State is assessed the least Federal penalties associated to the ACA as possible.

Although you cannot view the compliance reports, your ACA contact will reach out to you if there are errors.

Listed below are descriptions of the compliance reports mentioned.

• No ACA Transactions – This report provides a listing of all employees that do not have an ACA Status Code.

Tip: Since all employees require an ACA Status Code, this will help to define which records need to be reviewed. If a Civil Service employee is missing an ACA Status Code, the DAA should work with CDFA to ensure the appropriate code is entered. If a 119 Day employee is missing an ACA Status Code, a 2A should be submitted for that employee on the next month’s Excel spreadsheet.

• 119 Day Employees with an ACA Status Code Other Than 2A or 6A – This report will provide a listing of any 119 Day employee that has a Status Code other than 2A or 6A.

Tip: The only ACA Status Codes that apply to 119 Day employees are 2A and 6A. If a 119 Day employee has any other code, then the DAA must submit the change on the next month’s Excel spreadsheet for that employee.

• Employees Without Appropriate Address – This report provides a listing of employees who do not have an appropriate address in ACAS.

Tip: Be sure to provide an address for employees during initial submission.

Resources

• ACA Overview Video - http://www.calhr.ca.gov/state-hr-professionals/Pages/Affordable-Care-Act-Training.aspx

• CalHR PML 2014-021, Introduction of the New Affordable Care Act System (ACAS) Database - http://sco.ca.gov/Files-PPSD-Letters/2014_e14-021.pdf

• CalHR PML 2015-013, Affordable Care Act Compliance Program - http://www.calhr.ca.gov/PML%20Library/2015013.pdf

• SCO Personnel Letter #05-019, Affordable Care Act (ACA) Compliance Reports – http://sco.ca.gov/Files-PPSD-Letters/Pers/2015_e15-009.pdf

Conclusion

This concludes the SCO Monthly File Overview. If you have any questions, concerns, or issues that arise before, during, and/or after file submission. Please contact SCO for assistance.

ACA Monthly File Support: ppsdacamfs@sco.ca.gov