Piatchek acquires CBS firm

John Piatchek, owner of Piatchek & Associates, purchased Compensation Benefit Services in January. Kathy Lampley, certified life underwriter, who managed the Car-thage firm since 1994, relocated to Springfield in December 2000 and now serves as CBS administrator overseeing operations from Piatchek & Asso-ciates' local office at 1355 E. Bradford Pkwy., Ste. F.

Compensation Benefit Ser-vices administers Section 125 cafeteria plans for employers, Lampley said, adding that of those plans, the most popular features are the flexible spending accounts.

"(They) allow employees to put away (before taxes) money into an account from which they can be reimbursed for expenses that their insurance doesn't cover," Lampley said.

The list of expenses that can be covered by a flexible spending account includes eyeglasses, prescription drugs, dental fees, insulin, oxygen, nursing care, laser eye surgery and other products and services. The accounts also can be set up for dependent-care expenses.

Piatchek's company deals in insurance and fringe benefits, such as financial and retirement planning, for businesses. He said adding CBS as a division of Piatchek & Associates was a good fit.

Because CBS works on a fee-based system of $3.75 per person per month, with a $120 per month minimum for each company, Piatchek said it is somewhat unusual in the local market.

"Essentially, nobody that we can see is doing a fee-only plan where they write the checks here locally. Most others are somewhere across the country," he said.

Also unlike other companies that administer the Section 125 cafeteria plans, CBS is not involved in the sale of products such as short-term health or life insurance. Piatchek said that some companies that handle the cafeteria plans require opportunities to pitch their products to employees of participating companies, and they also require a specific amount of purchases before they'll agree to administer cafeteria plan services.

CBS, as plan administrator, can work with whichever provider a client company may have for the Section 125 cafeteria plan, and CBS' role is to facilitate employee meetings to get the plan set up, to create the necessary documents, to fill out appropriate tax forms and to write the checks for reimbursement.

"They turn in the receipts to me, and I write them a check," Lampley said. "The employers really like it because I can turn a check around on any schedule they want. There are some companies I write checks every week for, and the employees get their money almost right away."

She added that when receipts have to be sent across the country, employees generally face a 30-day wait for reimbursement. But because she can do the checks here, Lampley said, there are some instances in which she processes claims daily and gets checks out in as little as 24 hours.

The amount an individual employee chooses to put into a flexible spending account is determined at the beginning of each year, and unless the individual has a change in status, such as a marriage or divorce, the amount cannot be changed until the next year.

Piatchek said the company counsels employee participants on the appropriate amount to put into their accounts each year, and he added that because leftover money doesn't transfer from one year to the next, it's important that they choose the amount wisely.

"Let's say you've got $600 going into an account month-by-month during the year and you only use $450; then you lose the $150," he said. However, he added that plan participants are updated regularly on check stubs as to how much money they have left.

"And if at the end of the year, you haven't used $100 worth or so, that's a good time to buy a new pair of eyeglasses," he said.

Piatchek said it's not only the participating employees who benefit from the flexible spending accounts, although their amounts of take-home pay can increase with pre-tax contributions to the accounts. Employers also realize savings in payroll taxes and Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) funds.

Lampley said CBS didn't lose any of its customers in the move from Carthage to Springfield, and the division continues to serve the southwest Missouri region. While CBS does not advertise, Lampley said local response thus far has been "pretty good" as a result of word-of-mouth and referrals.