ACA Notes Post-HRSP 92 (Affordable Care Act)

[Matt_Fraser]

Update:

Since the original publication of this blog in October 2015 a number of new Notes have been released. As of this update (4 February 2016), a total of 8 "updates" have been released, and another is planned for the next day or so. See the end of the blog for details on the new Notes.

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If you're following the discussion on technical and functional configuration in Affordable Care Act (ACA) (also known as "Play or Pay"), you'll notice that a number of organizations seem to be having difficulties getting the latest ACA Notes applied to their systems. It's true that there is a careful order in which the Notes must be applied, and a number of manual steps which must be carefully followed, but they can be applied cleanly. You can get this right the first time. Here is how I did it. Hopefully you will find this a useful reference to guide you through the muddy waters.

Note that I'm not talking about the various configuration steps in the user guide, etc -- I'm Basis, not the Benefits Analyst! But as far as getting the Notes in cleanly so the Benefits Analyst has a good base to start from, here you go.

1. With SPAM, apply HRSP 92 (SAP_HR 604.92 and EA-HR 604.92). You're going to need this HRSP for Year-End Legal Changes for Tax Reporter anyway, so go for it. Note that I did this along with Support Stack 17 in our ERP 6.04 / NW 7.01 system. I also updated the kernel to 7.21_EXT pl600.
   
   
2. In SNOTE, download Notes 2222144, 2211233, 2230800, and 2211234 (1st and 2nd ACA Updates and their associated UDO Notes). Note that you will not be implementing these Notes in numerical order.
   
   
3. With SNOTE, apply Note 2222144 (BEN: UDO Note - Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 1st SAP ACA Update) (version 2) in the normal fashion. This creates the program for the next step. Save this to a new transport request.
   
   
4. In SE38, execute RPU_BENUS_UDO_NOTE_2222144. Run it in Test mode first and ensure that all lights are green (except the one yellow stating it's a test run). Then run it in Update & Activate mode. Online activation is fine. Save the changes to the same transport as step 3.
   
   
5. In SNOTE, apply Note 2211233 (BEN: Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 1st SAP ACA Update) (version 6) in the normal fashion. Use the same transport to save the new and changed objects.
   
   
6. Read the post-implementation manual instructions in the PDF attached to Note 2211233.
   1. Download ACA_Files.zip that is attached to Note 2211233 and extract three form XML files from it to a temporary location on your workstation.
   2. In transaction SFP, locate and change form HRBENUS_1095C_2015. Go to Utilities... Uploading form... and find the file SFPF_HRBENUS_1095C_2015.XML that you extracted and upload it. Save the form; use the same transport request. Activate the form.
   3. Repeat step 2 for forms HRBENUS_1095B_2015 and HRBENUS_1094C_2015.
   4. Note: these forms already exist in your system. You are uploading new versions. I recommend searching for the form names vs typing them in to ensure no mistakes.
      
      
7. In SNOTE, apply Note 2230800 (BEN: UDO Note - Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 2nd SAP ACA Update) (version 5) in the normal fashion. This creates the program for the next step. Use the same transport request.
   
   
8. In SE38, execute RPU_BENUS_UDO_NOTE_2230800. Just like the previous one, run it in Test mode first and ensure all the green lights (except the test mode warning), then run it in Update & Activate mode. There will be a few screens to confirm things, but it should be pretty obvious what you're doing. Save changes to the same transport request.
   
   
9. In SNOTE, apply Note 2211234 (BEN: Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 2nd SAP ACA Update) (version 7) in the normal fashion, saving everything to the same transport request.
   
   
10. Read the post-implementation manual instructions in the PDF attached to Note 2211234.
    1. In SM30, change view V_T5F99K0, hit New Entries, and create an entry as shown in the PDF. Save your changes to a new transport (because this is client-specific and needs a customizing transport, whereas everything up to now has been in a workbench transport).
    2. Change view V_T5F99K1, hit New Entries, and create the two entries as shown in the PDF. Note that you should be able to use the search help to find Option ACAOF after creating the entry in the previous substep, so the order is important here. Save your changes to the customizing transport you created in the previous step.
       
       
11. You're done! Now turn it over to your functional benefits analyst/configurator and point him/her to the instructions and FAQs in Notes:
    1. 1910650: BEN: FAQ about Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
    2. 2060131: Announcement Note for Information Reporting for Employer Sponsored Coverage and Minimum Essential Coverage
       1. This is the one with the attached User Guide.
    3. 2167502: BEN: Main Note - Affordable Care Act (ACA)
       1. Overview of the features, views, programs, etc
    4. 2219762: BEN: Affordable Care Act (ACA) - Frequently Asked Questions

One final note: all of the above Notes are supposed to be included in HRSP 93, so if you can wait....

Update (4 February 2016):

The above directions take you through correct implementation of ACA Updates 1 and 2. Below is a quick overview of Updates 3 through 8. In general, the instructions for these Notes are very much like the above: two of them have "UDO" Notes that must be applied as prerequisites, and another four have associated manual activities. Again, the Notes are not to be applied in Note-numerical order, but rather in the order I outline below.

1. 2250539: 3rd ACA Update UDO Note
   1. After applying this Note, use SA38 to execute RPU_BENUS_UDO_NOTE_2250539 as described in the instructions. Do this before applying the next Note.
2. 2211235: 3rd ACA Update
   1. After applying this Note, be sure to follow the manual activities described in the attached PDF. This includes creating some custom variants, making some table entries, and uploading new versions of forms, much as you did earlier with the previous Notes.
3. 2252016: 4th ACA Update
4. 2255632: 5th ACA Update
5. 2260557: 6th ACA Update
   1. After applying this Note, again follow the manual activities described in the attached PDF. This time it's simply another update to form 1095C.
6. 2262511: 7th ACA Update
   1. Perform the manual activities before applying this Note. They include a change to a message class, and another update to form 1095C.
7. 2272881: 8th ACA Update UDO Note
   1. After applying this Note, use SA38 to execute RPU_BENUS_UDO_NOTE_2272881.
   2. In the Update & Activate step of execution, if you drill into the detail log via RADPROTB as described, you may see an activation error for View V_T77BENUS_ASPCC due to a "missing relationship" between T77BENUS_ASPCC-BCOST and T5UBH. However, the primary log for the step shows successful updates of the view and both tables to add this BCOST field. In fact, the foreign key relationship is correctly setup and the view is correctly activated, all of which you can confirm in SE11, so you can ignore this error and proceed to the next step, Generate Maintenance, and then proceed to the next Note.
8. 2267001: 8th ACA Update
   1. As with so many others, this one has a manual pre-implementation step, which is to upload yet another update to Form 1095C. It's probably not important whether you upload the new form before or after applying the Note's code corrections, but the instructions indicate to do it before.

That's it.... for now. There will doubtless be further updates. Indeed, the long-awaited and much-deferred Electronic Filing ACA Update (Note 2211236) is now announced for 5 February 2016.