What is a good group health insurance carrier for <5 employees small business all working remotely in different states?
We have 4 employees residing in California, Hawaii, and Washington. One of them will start being based out of Tanzania in July for an indefinite amount of time. Because of our special circumstances, shopping for a group health insurance plan has been difficult. Your advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!
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Apr 9, 2014
The best advice I can give, is for you to let each employee shop their own insurance in each individual state and up their salaries to cover the insurance premium. You CAN do it with a group like you wanted but it's going to be a pain in the butt when it's all said and done. If you HAVE to go that rout look at Anthem, United Health Care, or Cigna those would be my three picks to shop. Hope things turn out well for you and you get it all figured out! If you ever want to chat one on one call my office at 755-353-7586 and some one will answer your questions :)
Apr 3, 2014
Blue Cross typically works well without of state employees. They have a program called the Blue Card which will allow the home state carrier (the state ware your home office is located) process the claims. You will want to use the PPO plan as apposed to a HMO because of multiple states.
Jan 24, 2014
Have you had the chance to check out Assurant? Let me know if you would like for me to assist.
Jun 28, 2013
Update: our company decided to open up an HRA through Paychex (with whom we do payroll) so our employees have the flexibility of choosing their own plan to meet individual needs. They then get reimbursed tax-free (beneficial for both employee and employer) every month up to the amount which the company sets. For now, this scenario works best for us. The HRA is managed by ZaneBenefits, which can offer the same service without the Paychex affiliation.
Perhaps this info could be useful for someone!
Jun 28, 2013
I spent two years researching health insurance for my employee's AIG has the best coverage with the best prices. I worked with a broker, and found that they were by far the best for a small office.
Jun 6, 2013
I don't know about CA but in TX you could be a group with remote employees. Carriers with provider networks in Hawaii, Washington and CA such as United Healthcare would probably cover you. I strongly suggest that your Tanzania person have insurance in CA but get international coverage through someone like International Medical Group - www.IMGLOBAL.com. Most carriers have limited coverage outside the US. Good luck.
Jun 6, 2013
Thank you Lauryn for the helpful advice. In fact, I was speaking to a company called Zane Benefits for an HRA account and they also recommended IMG for international coverage. We can try to apply for nationwide carriers like United Healthcare but we may not get approved since we are not over the 51% threshold. But if we hire another person in the near future who's based in CA, it might work. In any case, thanks for your insight!
Feb 4, 2014
Domestic plans often provide limited coverage for overseas travel as they can't control the expense of the service providers like they can in the US (through HMOs or PPOs). IMG is a good provider of international health insurance. You can research and compare other international plans at sites like InsureMyTrip.com, www.InternationalInsurance.com, and SquareMouth.
Jun 6, 2013
Hi Cindy,
I've helped a lot of clients in this situation. Our model allows our clients employees to have 10-15 health plan options wherever they are located. Feel free to give me a call and we can discuss in more detail.
Jason Mitchell
781-906-0005
jason.mitchell@trinet.com
Jun 4, 2014
Cindy, Jason works for Trinet which is a PEO... this is an option I told you to check out when I posted above...
Jason, can Trinet write down to 4 lives?
Jun 5, 2013
Cindy,
Have you considered having your employees sign up for individual or family health plans with the provider of their choice in their state and then reimburse them for the premiums? I am not in the insurance industry but I was working with a company in California that had a similar dilemma and the information I was given followed the 51% rule that Nate indicated for MA. The company did not meet the requirements and provided employees with healthcare through reimbursement. The drawbacks as I understand them revolve around preexisting conditions until Jan. 2014 when the Affordable Care Act removes that limitation and the fact that the reimbursements are considered additional compensation to the employees and are taxable. Just something to consider.
Jun 5, 2013
Yes, this is the conclusion I've slowly been coming to. I am currently looking into stand-alone HRA plans that would allow our company to make tax-deductible defined reimbursements to employees for their individual plans, and on their end the reimbursements are tax-free. I'm not exactly sure what kicks in after Jan. 2014 for the Affordable Care Act but there are some companies who can facilitate this HRA as I described. I am wondering if we can do without the middle man...
Jun 5, 2013
I can't add anything further to the HRA discussion but once your company reaches 10 employees you might want to consider working with a PEO. This will provide a broader array of services for your employees and should be cost effective for you. With under 10 employees, it probably is not cost effective. I was referred to the Frank Crum organization (http://www.frankcrum.com/) to explore this possibility for under 10 employees but I have not gotten around to it yet. You may want to check them out.
Jun 4, 2014
Cindy, STOP.... you can't use an HRA to pay for individual plans... the IRS just released a memo about this: Here is a link to a NY times article about that: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/26/us/irs-bars-employers-from-dumping-workers-into-health-exchanges.html?_r=0
You should contact a local broker in CA who can help you figure this out...go to http://www.nahu.org/ and click find an agent... HAHU is a broker organization and most brokers that are part of NAHU are very knowledgeable and adept. I'm a NY broker so I can't give you too much guidance here as the rules vary from state to state.
Do you plan on having more employees soon? You might be able to check out a PEO there is a good chance you might be too small to join a PEO unless you plan on expanding soon.
Jun 5, 2013
Cindy,
This will depend on the state the company is in. In MA you need to have 51% of employees working or residing in-state to get group coverage for all vendors. In NY one vendor requires 51% while another vendor simply required a plurality of employees in the state. There are other states where you just need 1 employee in that state to act as an anchor.
If you let me know the state the company is in, i'd be happy to do a little legwork.
Nate Therrien
Founder
Business Insurance & Investment Services of MA
978-400-7014
nathan@bibsma.com
www.bibsma.com
Jun 5, 2013
Hi Nathan,
Thank you for your help, I very much appreciate it! The company is based out of California. 2 of our employees are residents of California, but one of them will be the ones traveling to Tanzania for possibly the remainder of the year. However, she'll still be paying US taxes and her W-4 has California address. That's not 51%, but close.
I've also been looking into stand-alone HRA plans since it might suit our unique circumstances better. What are your thoughts on that?
For TONS of great insurance updates and answers to all of your questions follow my facebook page www.facebook.com/eppsfinancial and feel free to check out my blog you will find it very educational http://www.eppsinsurance.com/blog/author/stanepps-jr/