Many companies will turn to the internet to search for insurance benefits. Since 1998, we have been helping these businesses obtain group benefits. In the beginning of the internet, very few people would go to the world wide web for insurance information. Today that has all changed, business owners want information at their fingertips.
We have seen all type of companies/people come to our site and ask questions. Over the last 20 years there has been a trend on the situations the company is in that leads them to us.
Here are common situations:
Small business that is less than 5 years old, looking to attract or retain employees. Start up companies that are funded will seek benefit information from the web. These companies usually need costs quickly because employee benefits are last on this list. Businesses under new ownership, a small business was recently purchased there may be an existing benefit package in place, new owners want to revamp benefits or shop out the market for a better deal. Then their company’s that are looking for new broker representation. The insurance community is understaffed, which is becoming a serious issue for companies when it comes to service.
Requirements for Group benefits:
For business to be eligible for group insurance benefits. Every week we field questions on how do we qualify for group benefits?
Group Health Insurance: There needs to be two enrolling members and one of the members needs to be on the wage n tax form (W2). With the passing of the affordable care act (ACA) no longer will husband & wife companies be eligible for a group plan, there must be a W2 employee.
Participation Requirements:
Most insurance companies require group to have a certain amount of participations to be eligible. Small group health plans carriers have different requirements. The standard use to be 50% of the full-time employees to be on the plan. A full-time employee in the insurance world is 30 hours a week. Other companies you must have 75% of “net eligible”. Net eligible is employees that do not have other coverage, so an Insurance company like Anthem, would accept a group that had 40 full time employees but only 7 electing coverage, if all the waivers had qualified coverage.
Group with 50+ participation requirement can be a bit more flexible. UnitedHealthcare has no participation requirements, a company of 99 employees could have only 10 taking coverage and the company would qualify as a group.
Additional lines of coverage like Life, Dental, Vision, & Disability have more standard participation requirements. Most companies require 25% participation.
Participation requirements do change more frequently than you would expect. The health insurance carriers could change every year.
One benefit of the affordable care act is the not having to meet participation for group health. If you submit your group health installation between November 15th and December 15th, you do not have to meet participation guidelines. Essentially every small company in Indiana can obtain health insurance, should they choose to do so.
