One of the biggest expenditure a company has is its health insurance. It also is never an easy decision to make. With hundreds of plans to choose from how can a company make the best choice: here are some ways to make the job easier for the business owner or human resources department.
Choosing a group plan may make the company eligible for tax incentives. It may enable employees to pay for their portion of the monthly premium with 'pre tax dollars' thereby lowering the employees tax liability.
Consult with an independent insurance broker who specializes in business insurance and group plans, who can show you several plans and compare them to each other. If the agent can only show you one choice, he may be only showing you the choice that is best for him and his commission. Be open to the idea that your company, might be able to qualify to be part of a larger organization to benefit from better rates.
To keep the premiums as affordable as possible, plans which cover exotic procedures such as 'in vitro fertilization', may not be realistic to consider.
Conduct a survey of your current employees to learn what is most important to them. Don't base your decision on the potential future needs of current employees. With constantly changing plans, you can always make different choices next year.
Consider selecting a plan that includes preventative care. These can lead to healthier employees, which in turn have healthier lifestyles which leads to less absenteeism and in the long run, more productivity.
Choose a plan that offers access to a broad network of doctors to encourage more of your employees to participate. The larger the network the less likely it will be to need an out of network doctor, therefore minimizing the out of pocket expenses of covered individuals. Make sure you are talking with people who represent legitimate insurance companies rather than policies that do not have to abide by the insurance department regulations.
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