Group Health Insurance
from Insurance Center Associates
Get a Group Health Insurance
Health Care reform or not, one of the most important employee benefits and incentives you can offer is Group Health Insurance. Group Dental Insurance and Vision come in a close 2nd and 3rd.
Attracting, retaining, and making your employees happy while not breaking your bank account is important to you and to us. There are many changes as well as new health insurance programs available that can save you serious money while keeping benefit changes to a minimum.
Covering Group Insurance is a specialty we offer. Navigating the group insurance minefield can be daunting and overwhelming, particularly with Health Care Reform.
We can make it easy as we specialize in Health and Dental insurance for small business (2-50), self-employed and medium (less than 100 employee) groups.
Carriers
We represent all the major local and nationwide players from Cal Kaiser to Aetna, to Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, with Health Net & more in-between. In addition, we’ll be ready to assit you with Covered California & SHOP exchange for small business health insurance.
We’ll provide instant affordable low cost group health insurance rates for all carriers as well as side-by-side comparative rates, benefit comparisons, and advice for your group health insurance needs.
Am I required to cover my employees?
Only groups of 50 or more “full time equivalent” employees must offer affordable health insurance to their employees. You are not required to cover dependents. This has now though been extended to 2015.
Small groups under 50 and with an average employee pay of $50k are being offered generous tax rebates to provide plans. Contact us for more information.
We represent all the major local and nationwide players from Kaiser to Aetna, to Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, with Health Net & more in-between. We’ll provide instant affordable low cost group health insurance rates for all carriers as well as side-by-side comparative rates and benefit comparisons for your group health insurance needs.
What is full time equivalent? Can I share costs with an employee?
A full time equivalent looks at your part time employees. All employee hours are totaled then averaged out to come up with an equivalent number of full time For example 2 part time employees working 20 hours per week would be equivalent to 1 full time (40 hour) employee. 8 employees working 10 hours would equal 2 full time equivalents.
Yes you can ask employees to pay a portion but it must be “affordable”. In basic terms – to meet this requirement an employer can only charge employees up to 9.5% of their gross pay for their share of Employee premiums for essential coverage.
The above is simplified information. Rules and exceptions apply. Please contact our office for more details.
Combining Health Insurance & Work Comp
Ever wonder if these overlap? They often do, so why not combine your Workers Compensation and Group Insurance into one carrier and get a substantial discount? Want to know more about this new way to save on Workers Compensation insurance? Can we do it? You bet! Call us for more information!
Self Employed or just a small Group? No problem – we have affordable health insurance plans to fit all type of businesses. In fact in California, Group Health Insurance is “guaranteed issue” with only 2 employees.
Rates
Rate Adjustment Factors (RAF’s) are no longer a part of the landscape. This could help you (if you had a high one) or hurt you if yours was low. However what is also new - each employee AND their dependents are now individually rated by age and gender. This can make a huge difference.
Small businesses who adopt wellness programs may be eligible for rate reductions and grants.
Did you know your industry classification or moving to a new carrier can change or decrease your rates? Call us and let us assist you.
Tax Credits
Tax credits of up 50% of your premium cost are available to small business groups under 50 employees if the average payroll (owners may be excluded) does not exceed $50,000. Click here for more information on this great benefit. Please note that you may be required to use a “SHOP” plan to obtain this credit, and as a SHOP Certified agent we’re here to help.
SHOP Plans
Plans will be available via the state’s Business Health insurance marketpace called “SHOP” Under SHOP, you can have multiple plans and carriers (choice) for your employees, but costs and “affordability” can come into concern. Is SHOP right for you? We represent the California SHOP Marketplace and most major carriers, so contact us and we can help.
Voluntary Plans
We can offer Dental, Vision, and even some Health insurance on a “voluntary” no cost basis to you. Ask us for more information
Some of the Employee Benefit plans we offer are:
- Health insurance
- Retirement plans
- Workers compensation
- Disability Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- And voluntary products
