The structure of employee health plans often obscures the view of benefit costs and internal controls that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act demands.

Among the many compliance perils created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, one of the least talked about could well be the act’s effect on corporate health-benefit programs.

The lack of discussion is understandable. To be sure, benefit managers commonly operate under the wing of human resources executives, who in turn report up to chief financial officers. Yet finance and HR often seem to live in two different worlds. That’s been especially true since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley: While finance executives have scrambled to comply with new reporting and certification requirements, benefits caretakers have largely watched from the sidelines.

[1] CFO.com: Sarbanes-Oxley and Health Plans