What to Expect When Getting a Health Insurance Plan for Your Business
When you first start your own business, you have a lot on your plate. The startup phase of any business requires tons of work, and it is often done all by yourself, until a certain level of success has been reached and you can take on employees. But as your business continues to grow, you have more considerations on your plate. One of the most important of these is figuring out health insurance benefits for your employees. Here are a few things to expect when getting a health insurance plan for your business.
When to Find One
The first thing that you should know about getting a health insurance plan for your business is when you should start to find one. According to Nolo, any business with 50 or more full-time employees has to provide health insurance to at least 95% of their full-time employees. If they do not or cannot do this, they must pay a tax penalty to the IRS. For this reason, you should probably start looking into offering health insurance at your business once you begin approaching 40 full-time employees. This gives you enough time to set up the plan and get your employees enrolled before hitting the 50-employee mark cutoff.
The Price Tag
Another thing that you should know when you are getting a health insurance plan for your business is the price tag that comes along with that. Health insurance is not expensive, so be prepared for offering health insurance to employees to eat into your revenue a bit. According to Xevant, a lot of healthcare costs are driven by specialty drugs. You can find plans that don’t include these specialty drugs to cut costs, at the risk of upsetting some employees. Make sure you find a plan that offers the best balance of coverage and cost savings.
What Your Employees Want
The final thing that you should know before getting a health insurance plan at your business is what your employees want from health coverage. There are many different types of plans, but the biggest distinction is between HMO plans and PPO plans. HMO plans only cover certain care providers, where PPO plans allow individuals to choose their providers, but at the cost of higher deductibles. Discuss with your employees what their preferences are when selecting plans.
Health insurance plans are a requirement for many small businesses. Making sure that you know the essentials before picking a plan is key to making a smart choice. Think about these three things before selecting the plan that you would like to offer at your business.
Check out this article on how to ensure job security over the long term!