This past year many
business managers have seen significant rate increases in the cost of running their employee
benefit programs. For our medium to larger clients (those with more than 20 medically insured employees), we have been changing from the traditional "fully insured
" health insurance plan to a partial or even fully "self-funded" program
Many smaller businesses have been
implementing the Health
Savings Account (HSA) or Health
Reimbursement (HRA) programs.
This has saved many clients from
10–40% on their health insurance premiums! Click here to see the information that we need to prepare a proposal for your consideration.
A self-funded plan is similar to owning a piece of the insurance company, rather than being just
a consumer. If your claims history is better than expected at the end of the plan year, a portion of the surplus and reserves are refunded to you (as opposed to the traditional plan keeping
the surplus). You are rewarded for having healthy, or cost conscious, employees. If you have a year of higher than expected claims, your monthly premium does not exceed the predetermined
level and next year you will likely get a rate increase. This is usually an amount similar to what the fully insured plan would have been.
The bottom line is that you win if
you have a good claims year, and
should not lose if you have a bad year (if that contradiction of terms makes sense). You control your benefit plan design and costs. You determine what benefits the plan should cover, and what it should not.
What would you have done with the money if your current health insurance carrier had refunded any (0-40%) of last year's premiums to you? What about the past 5 – 10 years premiums?
Self funding health insurance is not right for all companies, but for those that fit the criteria it is the most cost
effective method of buying your
group health insurance.
Click here to
see the information that we need to prepare a proposal for your consideration.
A flex plan will provide an immediate
reduction in your health insurance costs of
7 ½% in FICA tax savings and 15-35% in
income taxes (depending upon your individual
tax bracket). This service alone is worth
many thousands of dollars per year in
administrative expense savings and can be
added to any existing health plan if
desired for a nominal fee.
If you would like to discuss this with us, or see a proposal,
please call or send us an e-mail. There is no charge for looking at our
rates! Click here to see the information that we need to prepare a proposal for your consideration. |
