Technology has brought us a new tool -- online enrollment software. Our software almost eliminates the paper in paperwork. We can combine multiple insurance companies, policy types, and educate and enroll your employees in just 20 minutes! Call us for your employee onboarding and annual open enrollment needs. Our professional Benefit Counselors are ready to assist!
In recent years 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 200 medically insured employees), we have been changing from the traditional "fully insured" health insurance plan to a "self-funded" program. For those with less than 200 employees, the same can be accomplished with the new Qualified High Deductible Health Plan (QHDHP), also known as a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Health Reimbursement Account (HRA).
This has saved many clients from 10–40% on their health insurance premiums!
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 with the insurance company 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, nor should you 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.
A flex plan will provide an immediate reduction in your health insurance fixed 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 custom personal proposal, please call or send us an e-mail. There is no charge for looking at our rates!