
With health costs skyrocketing and recession revenues contracting, certain employers have had no choice but to eliminate group health coverage all together. There are still options, however, for
small employers to put together some sort of
benefit package for their remaining employees. For one, group life still remains a bargain, so I recommend having a
separate group life policy paid by the employer for all employees. $15k - $25k can ofter be had for less than $15 a month. Next,
voluntary benefits are not suffering nearly the rate increases of health plans, so those things like FLEX, AFLAC, dental, vision, legal plans can still be offered without any additional cost to the employer. But what about medical coverage? For folks with a fairly healthy group of employees, a
list bill option for individual health plans may be an option. With our PEO, Management 2000, we have an in-house insurance agency names RMIA Inc. This allows us to offer groups unable to afford group coverage through the PEO an option of offering payroll deducted individual plans. The only downside to this strategy is that employees with ongoing health concerns will not qualify for this coverage and will have to seek other options. In Indiana, we help guide those employees through the state pool process. It is actually illegal for employers to contribute toward these health plans when a group plan could be available, so it doesn't look so bad when the employer couldn't afford to do it anyway. If a client wishes to
contribute something toward employee benefits, there are two options. One would be to set up an
HRA for the employees where a set amount of funds are contributed by the employer through the year for qualified out of pocket medical expenses. Another idea that has been popular is for the employer to agree to fund a certain amount of an employees
HSA account if they enroll in that type of health plan.
Both ideas allow the employer to help the employee contain their health expenses without breaking the bank of the employer. This may all sound like an administrative nightmare, but that is where enlisting the services of a T
op PEO is an advantage.
Our Employee Benefits Advisers handle all the administration for the voluntary plans. We reconcile the list bill of health policies as well as the AFLAC, dental, vision, legal and life plans. Benefits Administrators set up the HRA or HSA accounts and direct their funding and administration. All the small employer has to do is sit back and look good to his employees for providing Employee Benefits Insurance while hunkering down to survive the current economic downturn