Take Stock Of What Your Employees Needs Are Find Out What Benefits Your Employees Prefer Remember That As Their Lives Change They May Also Need Different Types Of Coverage

Modern insurance companies provide a wide range of benefits in addition to medical, vision, and dental coverage. They may include maternity care, virtual doctors visits, wellness programs, and more.

If the insurance company charges for out-of-network coverage, you may want to find an alternative insurance provider. Most people want to choose their own doctors without finding one from a narrow, carrier-selected network list.

Can Employers Refuse To Cover Spouses

When stating above that group health plans apply to immediate family members of your employees, this does not necessarily include the spouse.

While the spouse may be automatically added to a group health plan, the employer may choose to issue a spousal exclusion, by which the insurance plan applies only to the children of your employee.

If you are an employer and are considering spousal exclusion for your business group health benefits plan, be very cautious. The spousal exclusion must not be discriminatory, meaning that in the example if you are issuing a spousal exclusion for all your full-time employees, and these are mostly male, this could be seen as a gender exclusion, and exclusions cannot be based on criteria such as gender, race, nationality or religion.

If you are still confused about employee-related group coverage, then perhaps you can check out this FAQ section with a list of short answers to complicated group benefits-related questions.

How Do I Get Benefits For My Employees

A thorough search to find the best employee benefits for small business owners begins with a close look at your business. Many companies are conducting internal research to identify new opportunities to offer better plans for their employees post-pandemic.

According to Harvard Business Review, nearly 98% of business leaders plan on offering new benefits to their employees, prioritizing the ones they feel are essential, such as child and senior care benefits, flexibility around when and where work takes place, and mental health. Because of COVID-19, 89% of businesses also indicated they were deprioritizing at least one type of employee benefit. The most common are on-site child care, paid vacation days, commuting benefits, tuition reimbursement, and meals and food.

Whether you are getting health insurance for the first time or rethinking your current benefits, heres a step-by-step guide to getting the ideal coverage for your small business:

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Health Insurance Improves Productivity And Happiness

In addition to providing quality medical care for illnesses and medical conditions, a comprehensive health insurance program can help your company reach record productivity by supporting your employees overall wellness and behavioral health.

People with poor well-being cant serve customers as well as the thriving theyre less productive, less effective, less innovative, and less perceptive. They cost more to insure, theyre absent more often, less likely to be engaged, and have more safety and theft incidents. So, to put it briefly: If you care about your business well-being, you have to care about your employees well-being, a Gallup report noted.

You will likely see an improved financial performance with more productive employees, as highly engaged teams produce 21% greater profitability than their non-engaged counterparts. Many insurance companies can provide benefits beyond vision, dental, and medical care. You may also get coverage for maternity care, virtual doctors visits, mental health, and physical wellness. Some proactive insurers can provide these services at no additional cost.

Are Businesses Required To Offer Health Insurance

You must provide health insurance if you have 50 or more full-time employees. If you have fewer than 50 employees, you may be exempt from this federal rule. But some stateslike Hawaii, for examplemay have stricter requirements where you must offer health insurance regardless of business size. You need to be familiar with both the state and federal guidelines for small business health insurance.

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How Much Does An Employer Pay For Health Insurance

Employer health insurance is often more affordable than individual health insurance, thanks to the group discounts that accompany multiple policies.

KFF reports that employers paid an average of 83% of single premiums in 2020. The average employee spends an average insurance premium of $1,243 per year for single coverage with employers picking up an average of more than $6,200 annually.

Job-based plans are hugely affordable, compared to paying more than $5,000 annually for the average individual premium. Family plans could cost more than double or more.

Here are the average costs for employer group health insurance, according to Kaiser Family Foundation.

Still, premiums continue to rise each year, with an average of 3% increases for single plans and around 5% for family coverage. Deductibles and out-of-pocket costs continue to increase, as well.

In addition to standard health insurance coverage, employers may also offer other benefits and perks that can increase the value of your healthcare.

Types Of Health Insurance Plans

There are several different types of health insurance plans available today. Some are more common than others, with Kaiser Family Foundation reporting the prevalence of each in todays group life insurance plans.

Your employer may choose from any of these, although its most likely that PPOs will be at least one choice. A 2020 Insure survey of 1,000 people found that 48% of respondents said their company only offers one health insurance plan. Forty-six percent said their job provides two or three options and only 7% provide different types.

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How Is Business International Health Insurance Taxed

For employers, premiums for International Health Insurance are typically paid from pre-tax earnings, meaning there are potential savings in corporation tax on the premiums.

Employees, however, will find that Health Insurance is a P11d benefit or a taxable benefit in kind. This refers to a benefit your employees receive thats not counted as part of their salary but is nonetheless has a cash value and so HMRC will levy tax against it.

As such, employees see their annual income tax allowance reduced by the same amount of the premiums paid on their behalf, meaning they can earn less before becoming subject to tax.

HMRC views company paid Health Insurance as part of employees remuneration, which means companies usually have to pay employers National Insurance on the premiums, also.

Of course, all this assumes that the employee in question hasnt moved abroad permanently and is being taxed in their home country. If they are being taxed abroad, the tax rules will be different and its best to seek advice from a specialist in international tax.

Nadeem FaridHead of Employee Benefits at Drewberry

Best For Preventative Care: Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente

• No. States Available: 8 states and the District of Columbia
• Providers In Network : 23,200+

Kaiser Permanente’s long history of quality customer service and its comprehensive website with ample educational resources makes it a good choice for many. More so, we recognize the company’s aggressive preventative healthcare services that aim to keep employees healthy longer.

• Strong emphasis on preventative care

• Detailed plan information on website

• Only available in eight states plus Washington DC

• Slow mental healthcare treatment

Kaiser Permanente is a leading healthcare provider and nonprofit health plan. The company was founded in 1945 but doesn’t currently have a rating with AM Best. It gets 3.5 to 5 ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 from NCQA. Kaiser ranks highest for four of the 21 award-eligible regions on the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study. Kaiser ranked highest in customer service for health insurance companies on Newsweek’s Best Customer Service Companies in 2021.

Kaiser Permanente’s coverage isn’t perfect, though. As California’s largest insurer, the company has faced a number of state sanctions and fines for delaying mental healthcare to members. The Los Angeles Times reported in December of 2019 that many people were still struggling to get timely care.

Kaiser’s small business insurance plans focus on companies with two to 100 employees. There is a total of six plan options, with varying costs by state:

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How Much Does A Business Health Insurance Policy Cost

Prices for group health insurance policies tend to start around £250 per employee per year but they can reach £1,000. A number of aspects will affect the cost of premiums, including:

• Group size Generally, the higher the number of people covered, the lower the price per employee. For small businesses, the cost will generally be higher, but there are specialist policies for those with fewer than 250 employees.
• Average age It is cheaper to cover younger employees. Because this is a group policy, the premiums will be based on the average age of those covered.
• Whats covered You can choose from various levels of cover. The more comprehensive the cover, the more expensive it will be. Additions include things like outpatient cover, dental care, psychiatric care, physiotherapy and allowing second opinion appointments.
• Occupation The type of work your employees do will affect how at risk they are of getting ill or injured. If they are more likely to claim, the cost will be higher.
• Where youre based Getting treatment in certain locations like Central London can be more expensive, and this will affect the price of your policy.
• The excess Employees will usually pay an excess for treatment. The lower the excess, the higher the premiums.

Business health insurance is a benefit in kind, so you will also need to factor in the costs of National Insurance contributions. Your employees also have to pay income tax on them.

How Much Does Health Insurance For Small Business Cost

The cost of health insurance for small business should be measured in both dollars and in time.

If you’re going with a group plan, you’ll want to consider the percentage of premiums you are willing to cover, whether or not you are covering employees or their families as well, whether you use third-party services to find insurance for you, since they have a fee as well. But it also takes time to search and compare plans that meet the needs of your business, to educate your team on their plan options, and the administrative burden of setting up and maintaining the plan. And did we mention paperwork? So much paperwork.

More specifically, according to the 2019 Employee Benefits Survey by Kaiser Family Foundation, annual premiums for employer sponsored family health coverage reached $20,576 in 2019, up 5% from the previous year, with workers on average paying $6,015 toward the cost of their coverage. The Wall Street Journal reports that employers shouldered 71% of that cost, while employees paid for the rest. The average deductible among covered workers in a plan with a general annual deductible is $1,655 for single coverage.

Pro tip: The best way to budget for health benefits is either a percentage of your payroll or a monthly per-employee amount.

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Where To Find Health Insurance Plans

First, we highly recommend assessing what benefits your employees are looking for. If a high percentage of your employees, for example, are looking for strong dental benefits, you’ll want a plan that emphasizes that. If your employees want cheap, minimal insurance that they’d only use for emergencies, that’s helpful to know as well.

Benenson Strategy Group reported that out of the 1,000 employees surveyed, most said that they’d opt for better health insurance rather than a 10% pay raise. In other words, it’s a big deal to employees.

After assessing their wants and needs, you can now enter the insurance market with a comprehensive list of the services you’d like covered and your budget, two of the most helpful initial filters.

Small Business Health Options Program

SHOP is a federal marketplace for small-business owners seeking health care plans. Each state maintains its own SHOP marketplace, but they’re all similar. In order to qualify to use SHOP, businesses must generally meet the following requirements:

• Have one to 50 employees
• Offer health care benefits to all employees who work over 30 hours a week
• 70% of your employees must enroll
• Have an office or employee in the state whose SHOP you’d like to use

Employers have the opportunity to select from three tiers of health insurance based on price and coverage. Once a tier is selected, employees can then go into SHOP on their own and can select their own individual plan based on the tier the employer selected.

How Have Employee Benefits Helped Support The Wellbeing Of Expats During The Covid

Another impact of the pandemic has been the impact on employees mental health. The psychological impact of lockdown has been felt by everyone, but for those employees living overseas it has the potential to have been even more acute. Our research found that almost two-fifths of expatriates said their mental health declined during the pandemic.

William Russells Bronze, Silver and Gold international health plans include mental health support for expats. This offers up to a maximum of US$100,000/£66,600/75,000 of lifetime support and treatment for mental health and psychiatric disorders, including up to 10 out-patient consultations per period of cover, plus more.

This support has proven invaluable to many organisations around the world, especially those that have seen employees placed in lockdown in foreign countries. See our Feefo reviews.

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Your Options For Health Insurance For Small Business

Historically, small-group insurance has been the primary option for many small employers who are looking to offer health benefits for their employees, but that’s just not the case anymore.

While these plans are the most widely known and understood, they are not the only option. You actually have THREE options! What works best for you depends on how your company is set up, how individual and group plan costs vary in your geographic area, and the health of the individual market near you. Check out your local market factors with the cool interactive maps that Vericred put together.

Here are your options for health insurance for small business:

It’s that last option we are jazzed up about. But first, let’s drill out the details in each option just to cover all of the bases.

Adding Families May Lower Rates For Everyone

Depending on the makeup of your workforce, adding employees families may diversify your coverage group in a way that lowers rates for everyone. For instance, if you own a hair salon and you employ primarily women in their 20s, your healthcare premiums may be higher due to the potential of pregnancy-related costs.

Including their spouses and children adds diversity to the group, helping to spread out the healthcare cost risks. When you have employees with similar risks in the same pool, diversification is going to give you a better financial advantage, Dutta says. For that reason, its a smart move to obtain quotes both ways before making a decision.

Finally, consider that employees consider health insurance more important than any other benefit.2 Offering group health benefits is one of the best ways to show employees that you value them and their families an important factor when it comes to retention.

About Group Health Benefits

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Once I Am Receiving Benefits Can My Employer Terminate Them

Yes. An employer may at any time amend the terms of an existing plan, including termination of the plan. Additionally, an employer may reduce or terminate health benefits of retired former employees who become eligible for Medicare Benefits without violating the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Exception: An employer may not terminate, suspend, discipline, discriminate, or take any adverse action against the employee for exercising his or her rights under a plan or ERISA, or for giving information or testimony in an investigation or proceeding relating to ERISA.

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Benefits Of Working With A Broker

Its easy to feel overwhelmed by the employers health insurance marketplacethe process is complicated, time-consuming, and frustrating for business owners dealing with it for the first time.

In these circumstances, calling in the help of a licensed professional can be in your companys best interest. A health insurance broker manages the health insurance selection process from start to finish. For small to mid sized businesses, partnering with a health insurance broker has several advantages:

• Personalized Recommendations

Your broker will learn the ins and outs of your business goals and workplace culture. With a comprehensive understanding of your needs, insurance plans recommend to you by a health insurance broker are guaranteed to tick all essential boxes.

• An Advocate for Your Goals

Working with a broker means that you can explain your goals and priorities and they will take care of the rest. Various plans and regulations can be difficult to navigate, so they will select the best options based on their knowledge and expertise. They may even be able to offer options that you may not have considered based on whats available in the marketplace.

• Easy Access To Support

Should any problems arise with coverage eligibility, claims, payments, or other issues, your broker is a phone call away from helping you solve those.

• A Direct Liaison

Choosing Design Health

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What Makes A Good Employee Benefits Package For Your Company

For many international companies operating in countries where healthcare is expensive, providing international health insurance is hugely valuable. Health insurance is also the most popular benefit with employees, making it of great value in attracting the best staff.

And its even more valuable if you can package up your international health insurance offering with other protection benefits, such as life cover and income protection insurance, making sure employees feel confident they have a financial safety net if something goes wrong.