Ontario Group Health Insurance and Employee Benefit Plans

There is an easy way to get the most out of your group health insurance and employee benefit plans. Call us here at Taylor Benefits Insurance Agency to begin consulting and planning an affordable health and benefit package to present to your employees. After 25 years in the industry, we have a large network of insurance carriers to work with including.

Ontario CA Large Group Health Insurance Plans

One important consideration for large employers evaluating their health insurance coverage is the cost. Every year the Kaiser Family Foundation completes a survey on health benefits, and every year the prices continue to increase. To comply with the ACA affordability rules, companies must keep the subscriber premium expense below 9.6 percent of gross income. Unfortunately, insurance coverage prices have increased much more than inflation or salaries, so companies must be cautious about the limit.

To address the issue, many large companies self-fund their health care programs. Self-funding means the employer pays providers for their employees’ health services directly instead of buying an insurance policy. Most self-funded companies use a third-party administrator to manage the programs and assure employee confidentiality. It can be an effective way to save money.

Ontario CA Small Business Health Insurance Plans

Small companies with fewer than fifty workers don’t have to sponsor health insurance for their employees. However, many small businesses want to help their teams in at least a small way. One way is by supporting a Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA). This account allows employees to pay for medical expenses with pre-tax dollars and often with money the employer contributes.

With a QSEHRA, the company decides how much to contribute to the employee’s accounts. The amount can even change yearly, but the business must offer the HRA to all full-time employees if it wants to do this. The company can’t also have a group health plan or a flexible spending account (FSA).

The employee’s health care plan must be ACA qualified. When workers pay for health care costs, they submit the claim for reimbursement to the QSEHRA. If an employee doesn’t use it, the business can either keep the allocated funds or roll them over for future usage.

Ontario CA Employee Benefit Plans and Employee Benefit Packages

Retirement savings help is one of the benefits that employees frequently ask for, often ranking in the top three or four. Still, only about half of California employers offer any retirement program. However, California has a new law requiring companies without a program to provide access to the Calsavers plan, a state-sponsored IRA. Employers don’t have to contribute, but they do have to facilitate payroll deductions.

Instead, if the business wants to implement a plan for its workers, there are multiple ways to do so. For example, a SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Account) is great for companies with fewer than twenty workers. It’s flexible for the owner and simple to establish.

SIMPLE IRAs are ideal for slightly bigger companies because they have more options for contribution levels. In a SEP or SIMPLE plan, the business’s contribution automatically belongs to the account holder without any vesting period. The waiver of vesting allows these plans to streamline compliance with nondiscrimination protocols.

With retirement plans or other benefits, it’s wise to get professional guidance when considering your best options. Talk to your Taylor Benefits Insurance specialist about what makes sense for your company.