small business insurance

How Much Is Your Business Required To Pay In The State Of Ohio For Employee Health Insurance?

Building a sustainable business takes a lot of hard work. In today’s competitive labor marketplace, employers have to offer certain benefits to potential employees to join their organizations. A big incentive that most employees commonly expect is health insurance. Getting the right insurance plan may seem difficult to some

The purpose of this guide is to provide a general overview of Ohio small business health insurance. The guide reviews small business health insurance options for Ohio small businesses.

Building a successful business is hard work. Finding affordable small business health insurance doesn’t have to be. All small businesses face special challenges when it comes to finding and getting health insurance coverage. Luckily, recent health care reform legislation provides small businesses with special opportunities to secure affordable health insurance.

Ohio Core Small Business Health Insurance Options

When evaluating your small business health insurance options in Ohio, you should immediately compare the costs and benefits of the following three options:

  • Offering Traditional Small Business Health Insurance Coverage
  • Offering a Defined Contribution Health Plan that Reimburses Employees for Individual Health Insurance Coverage, and
  • Offering Nothing

Ohio Small Business Health Insurance Overview

There are two primary categories of health insurance for small businesses to choose from:

  • Individual health insurance,
  • Group health insurance.

 Individual Health Insurance

Individual health insurance plans are health insurance plans purchased by individuals to cover themselves or their families. Anyone can apply for individual health insurance. Small business owners who can’t offer group coverage due minimum contribution (or minimum participation) requirements typically purchase individual and family plans for themselves and their families. In 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to decline individuals for individual health insurance based on a pre-existing medical condition. Also, starting in 2014, there are new special tax incentives available to businesses and employees when employees purchase individual health insurance. In some cases, self-employed persons who purchase their own health insurance may be able to deduct the cost of their monthly premiums. When small businesses decide on the individual health insurance route, they often create a “Pure” Defined Contribution Health Plan to reimburse employees tax-free for individual premiums.

Group Health Insurance

Group health insurance plans are a form of employer-sponsored health coverage. Costs are typically shared between the employer and the employee, and coverage may also be extended to dependents. In certain states, self-employed persons without other employees may qualify for group health insurance plans.

Four Types of Ohio Small Business Health Insurance Plans

Whether you’re looking at individual health insurance or group health insurance, there are several different types of health plans available. The four you should absolutely know are:.

  • PPO Health Insurance Plans,
  • HMO Health Insurance Plans,
  • HSA-Qualified Health Insurance Plans, and
  • Indemnity Health Insurance Plans.

The plan type that is best for you and your employees depends on what you and your employees want, and how much you are willing to spend. Here’s a brief review of the four popular types of health insurance plans:

PPO Health Insurance Plans

PPO or “Preferred Provider Organization” plans are the most common. Employees covered under a PPO plan need to get their medical care from doctors or hospitals on the insurance company’s list of preferred providers in order for claims to be paid at the highest level.

HMO Health Insurance Plans

HMO stands for “Health Maintenance Organization.” HMO plans offer a wide range of health care services through a network of providers that contract exclusively with the HMO, or who agree to provide services to members. Employees participating in HMO plans will typically need to select a primary care physician (“PCP”) to provide most of their health care and refer them on to HMO specialists as needed.

HSA-Qualified Health Insurance Plans

HSA-qualified plans are typically PPO plans designed specifically for use with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). An HSA is a special bank account that allows participants to save money – pre-tax – to be used specifically for medical expenses in the future. Section 105 Healthcare Reimbursement Plans (HRPs) are often used in place of HSAs due to their advantages for employers.

Indemnity Health Insurance Plans

Indemnity plans allow members to direct their own health care and generally visit any doctor or hospital. The insurance company then pays a set portion of the total charges. Employees may be required to pay for some services up front and then apply to the insurance company for reimbursement.

small-business-insurance

When Should Your Business Start To Offer Health Insurance?

While operating a business, it is pretty easy to get lost in the day-to-day and put off some tasks for the future. Your employee’s health benefits should not be one of them. Employees place a lot of value on health benefits and in an extremely competitive labor market, good talent can be hard to retain. Health insurance incentives may be what could separate you from the rest, allowing you to retain and attract global talent.

Health insurance can be very costly for businesses, but the benefits definitely outweigh the expenses. Everyone knows that attracting the right talent is one of the biggest challenges for any business. By offering a comprehensive health insurance plan, you could definitely bring in the talent you need to achieve your vision.

But if you’re operating a small business or just starting out, you may be wondering when should your business start to offer health insurance. The answer is as soon as possible! There is no fixed answer for all businesses, but the sooner you put your plan in place, the better. To find the most suitable plan for your business, you can get in touch with reliable healthcare consultants for business owners.

Boost Employee Productivity

Boosting productivity and overall employee efficiency is extremely important for all businesses. If your employees are worried about health expenses, chances are they might not be as motivated as they could be if you offer them health insurance. This is due to the fact that healthcare is extremely expensive in the US.

How Large Do Businesses Have To Be To Offer Health Insurance?

There is no minimum number of employees, but around 35% of businesses that have under 15 employees offer health insurance. With most small businesses and startups struggling to keep up with finances, it can be difficult to allocate funds towards offering health plans. While mitigating expenses to maximize profitability is important, offering health benefits is equally crucial. Startups that have received investor funding do not have this problem since they are in a very good cash flow position.

Around 65% of businesses with less than 50 employees offer health insurance. As the employee count increases, statistics show a significant increase in businesses offering health insurance to their customers. Many businesses have to forcefully allocate funds for these expenses because health benefits have now become a significant part of any expected compensation plan. A health insurance plan gives an employee peace of mind that in case of emergencies, their health benefits would be able to cover expenses.
The Affordable Care Act was put into place in 2010, Businesses with more than 50 employees are required by law to offer health insurance. Failing to do so would result in a large fine. There are different types of health insurance that businesses can provide, each offering a specific coverage amount. Businesses can select what seems feasible accordingly.

While offering stock options may seem like a good incentive, health benefits has its own importance and are typically expected in any compensation plan. Even current employees at businesses are most likely considering other options if they aren’t being offered a comprehensive health insurance plan.

 

Small business insurance has a broad level of coverage, and most providers will call this commercial insurance.

Why Choosing The Right Health Insurance Partner For Your Business Is Important?

Health Insurance is one of the primary incentives for employees to join any business. Over the years, more and more employees are beginning to look for jobs with health benefits as it helps mitigate large healthcare expenses over time. But with so many types of insurance options out there, businesses can find it difficult to determine which type of business health insurance is best for them.

Finding top tier talent is difficult enough as it is, but if your business does not offer market competitive health benefits, you’re going to find it much more difficult to attract quality talent to your business. Many small business owners struggle in finding the right business health insurance partner to match their needs.

Here are some things you need to consider to find the right business health insurance partner:

1. Plan Type and Specifications:

Professional Employer Organization (PEO): Small businesses can opt for PEO’s to offer health insurance at bulk pricing, thus making it very affordable to everyone.

Fixed Plan for Contribution: The employer opts to allow employees to make the choice of plan that fits their requirements.
Fixed Plan for Benefits: This is the most common type of business health insurance where businesses provide the same type of coverage to all employees through bulk pricing.

HMO’s offer organizations affordable prices, but the options for employee healthcare can be limited. Instead, a Preferred Provider Organization comes at higher premiums but offers more benefits. There is also a third option called ‘Exclusive Provider Organization’, which is a combination of PPOs and HMOs. No referrals are necessary, and employees have to stay within a fixed network of specialists.

2. Plan Costs

Businesses nowadays are looking to mitigate costs, to increase profitability. However, since the decision of selecting a business health insurance provider involves the wellbeing of your employees too, you will have to find an affordable plan that provides the coverage you need. Consider the plan cost, what your company has to spend, deductibles and what deductions employees would have to bear. The primary goal is to provide as many benefits as possible at the lowest cost. Which is why doing market research or hiring a healthcare consultant for businesses is an excellent option.

3. Understand Coverage

Reading through the entire coverage fine print is essential when finalizing a business health insurance provider for your business. Analyze what the plan does not cover, which healthcare professionals does it give access to, and what restrictions apply. Also, reading up on reviews can help learn more about how fast the reimbursement process would be for certain scenarios.

4. Analyze Competitors

Many businesses tend to overlook this key strategy. Since the labor market is highly competitive, offering better benefits than your competition could attract talent towards your organization. Employee expectations can also be fully understood once you see what the market trends are. Adding different incentives can play a huge role in retaining and attracting talent within your business.

health-insurance-agent

The Benefits Of Hiring A Health Insurance Agent

Health insurance agents help people, just like you, navigate complex insurance options. Paperwork, exclusions, and inclusions make understanding what’s included in your insurance frustrating and confusing.

A health insurance agent helps make all of these complications trivial.

In fact, you’ll benefit from hiring an agent in many ways, including but not limited to the following:

5 Benefits of Hiring a Health Insurance Agent

1. Coverage for Price Considerations

Insurance companies make coverage options complex and difficult to understand. You might sign up for a more expensive plan while receiving fewer benefits than with a cheaper plan.

When you work with an agent, they’ll ensure that you maximize your coverage.

For example, if you can only pay $100 a month for insurance, the agent will work to find the absolute best plan in this price range so that your money goes as far as possible. Your agent will also have a better understanding of your healthcare needs and will find a plan that includes the coverage you need.

2. Local Insurance Knowledge

If you’re a business owner looking for insurance options for your small business, an agent is an invaluable asset to have by your side. Local agents:

  • Understand your business and its unique needs
  • Work with insurers that know your business and offer custom insurance options

Local insurance knowledge is ideal for business owners because the agent already has connections in the industry that can help.

3. Clear Options Presented to You

Insurance agents know that insurance is very complicated. When you work with an agent, they’ll spend the time to make coverage as transparent as possible. The agent will provide you with:

  • Multiple insurance options that fit into your budget
  • Transparent costs and coverage options

With so many insurance options available, agents make getting health insurance as simple as possible. Of course, you’ll still have many choices to make, but when they’re all presented to you clearly, it’s easier to find a perfect plan.

4. Personalized Service

Your agent provides personalized service that includes asking questions and getting answers from insurance companies. Since these professionals already have contacts at many insurance companies, they’ll rapidly narrow down your insurance options while offering a personalized service that can save you time and money.

5. Save Yourself Time

Finally, you’ll save yourself a lot of time when working with an agent. You won’t have to scour through dozens of plans, ask questions to insurers or do anything else. Instead, you only need to work with a single agent that handles all of these nuances for you.

Your agent is your point of contact, and since you hire them to find a plan for you, all you need to do is sit and wait for them to get back to you with plan options that you make prefer.

If you need health insurance and want to maximize your coverage while also paying the best price, hire a health insurance agent. These professionals know how to navigate complex insurance plans and make them simple to understand.

Humana

A Brief Overview of Humana Health Insurance

HumanaHumana Health Insurance is one of the most popular options for businesses that offer health insurance options to their employers. Group and small business insurance options are available, with unique offers that are personalized to meet the needs of employers.

Traditional group plans include the following:

Medical Plans

Humana’s medical plans offer options built to meet the needs of employees and business owners. All plans come with:

• Go365 wellness

• Doctor on demand

• Preventative care

• Full-service, mail-delivery pharmacy

Employers can choose between multiple plans: Canopy, Simplicity, HDHP, Efficiency and more. Plans have a wide range of options, which include varying deductible ranges, health savings accounts, spending account options and copayments.

There are plans to match the health and age of your workforce, too.

If your workforce is younger and healthier, their plan will look significantly different than a plan for older workers who may have greater healthcare needs. Affordable self-funding options are also available.

Plans are available for businesses with fewer than or more than 100 employees.

Level-funded premiums offer affordable solutions to small businesses that have to overcome the challenge of healthcare costs.

Dental Plans

Much like the medical plans offered by Humana, there are dental plans that allow employees to visit any dentist, have dental work performed and fit into the budget of employers. Prepaid dental health maintenance options are also available in select states.

Vision Plans

Vision plans are available, with a nationwide set of practitioners ready to assist. Plans offer great options of $0 to $10 for preventative eye exams, free diabetic eye exams and many options for low-cost frames, too.

Material-only plans are available that pay for contacts and glasses but do not offer eye exam benefits.

Personalize and Enhance Plans

Employers can also choose to enhance the plans and options available to their workers. A few of the additions that can be added include:

• Group life insurance. Life insurance policies can be added to health insurance options that allow employers to provide these benefits to their employees in the event of their death.

• Group Medicare. Add Medicare Part A, B or D to a plan to improve the health of retirees, too.

• Go365. Offer rewards to employees that work hard to stay healthy. For example, verified workouts or getting the flu shot are healthy options that offer rewards to employees.

• Employee assistance programs. The EAP program offers support and guidance on any core issues that can take up the time and attention of your employees.

Humana Health Insurance has multiple affordable opportunities for employers to begin offering group plans that meet the needs of their workforce. Group plans take a whole-person approach to health, including eye and dental care as well as wellness incentives.

In today’s competitive workforce, offering the best in personalization can keep employees happy and healthy while attracting top-tier talent. Additionally, personalizing Humana Health Insurance to meet employee health and wellness needs is crucial when trying to retain staff.

Contact us today to learn how we can help you find the best health insurance options.