Group Health Insurance from King Street Agency
In today’s competitive economy, employers need to do everything they can to attract and retain the best talent. One key way to do that is to offer an enticing benefits package. To provide a comprehensive benefits package while reducing costs for your business, a group health plan is a great option. Learn more about our group health insurance and ancillary coverage options below, and request a quote today.
What is Group Health Insurance?
Any business with at least two employees is eligible to purchase a group health plan. These plans provide coverage for health expenses, with several coverage options for employees to choose from. Yet, group health plans can be far more cost-effective than individual plans, for both businesses and employees.
Another key benefit of group health plans is that they can be paid with pretax funds. For further convenience, these plans can be integrated with payroll to automatically draft premium costs from an employee’s paycheck. And finally, many businesses will offer some form of premium split, where the employee pays a portion of their premium and the employer pays another portion. Offering premium contributions like this can really help your benefits package to stand out from your competitors.
Common Plan Types
There are three main types of group health plans. These include, HMOs, PPOs, and EPOs. Let’s take a closer look at each:
- HMO. Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) plans have exclusive networks of care providers that allow costs to be lowered for members. They do not typically cover out-of-network care, however, and referrals are often required.
- PPO. Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans also offer a network of care providers, but policyholders have the ability to seek care in or out of network, and referrals are not required. With this greater freedom, however, PPO plans typically have higher premiums and deductibles.
- EPO. Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) plans are similar to HMO plans, offering a network of care providers with reduced costs. EPOs, like PPOs, do not require referrals—but they do not typically cover out of network care.
Need help understanding which plan type is best for you? Speak with a KSA insurance agent today.
Understanding Deductibles & Premiums
When selecting your plans, it’s important to understand the relationship between deductibles and premiums. First let’s define what these are:
- Premiums are the monthly fees paid to the insurance company to continue to receive coverage.
- Deductibles are the amount you must pay out of pocket prior to receiving benefits from insurance.
In general, higher premium plans will have lower deductibles. This means that you will pay a higher monthly fee for coverage but there will be less money you will need to pay out of pocket when filing a claim prior to receiving benefits. And vice versa, lower premium plans tend to have higher deductibles—so you will pay a lower monthly fee for coverage but will need to pay more out of pocket when filing a claim before receiving insurance benefits.
Small Businesses May Qualify for a Tax Credit
For small business with less than 25 full-time employees, you may be able to gain a tax credit under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) when offering group health plans to your employees. This credit is available to cover premium contributions that a business offers to employees. According to the IRS, the maximum credit is:
- 50 percent of premiums paid for small business employers and
- 35 percent of premiums paid for small tax-exempt employers
- The credit is available to eligible employers for two consecutive taxable years
You can learn more about this tax credit at irs.gov—or speak to a KSA insurance agent for more information.
KSA Group Health Options
Whether you have a small business or own a large company, our knowledgeable agents can help you identify the best group health insurance plan options for your needs. Simplify the enrollment process while offering your team competitive benefits packages and reducing costs for your business.
Our group health carriers include:
- Blue Cross
- Blue Choice
- Cigna
- United Healthcare
- Allied
- Aetna
- Trustmark
KSA Ancillary Benefits
A competitive benefits package can help you to attract and retain top talent. Offering your employees access to more than life and health insurance can help to round out your compensation package and improve client retention.
We are proud to offer a full range of ancillary options like dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance. Our ancillary carriers include:
- Sunlife
- Unum
- Guardian
- Companion Life
- Principal
Introducing Our Client Login Portal
We strive to make managing benefits as easy as possible for our clients. Whether you’re an administrator or an individual client, we’ve made it easy to login for admin portal access, bill payment, benefits information, enrollment, and more.
Request A Quote Today
From attracting and retaining top talent to reducing costs for both your business and your employees, there are many benefits to group health plans. Request a quote today from King Street Insurance Agency.
