Atlanta GA Large Group Health Insurance Plans
Employees can often enroll on a calendar year basis with company-based health insurance plans. Workers may sign up when they become eligible after starting work or during an open enrollment period which may occur in the fall to be effective the following year. Usually, after the worker enrolls in a plan, they can’t make changes until the next open enrollment period. So if you miss open enrollment, you have to wait.
However, “qualifying events” allow a worker to add, change, or remove coverage. These triggers include marriage, divorce, adding to the family, and losing or gaining insurance from another source. For example, perhaps an employee was covered by their partner’s company-sponsored program, but the partner changed jobs and lost that coverage. That event would qualify to enable the worker to add participation in their own employer-based program. Similarly, if a young adult is covered on their mother or father’s plan but turns 26 and is no longer eligible. That qualifying event allows them to sign up for new coverage.
Or suppose an employee enrolled in a plan at work, but their partner gets better coverage at a new company. In that case, the enrolled employee can drop their employer coverage because of the qualifying event.
Atlanta GA Small Business Health Insurance Plans
Small companies concerned with the cost of health insurance may want to consider other ways of assisting their workers with health care. One tool that the ACA developed is the Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA). This is an account an employer establishes for their employees. With a QSEHRA, the company decides how much to contribute to the employee’s accounts. Then, when the workers pay for their health care expenses, they submit a claim for reimbursement to the QSEHRA. The employees must have an ACA-compliant plan to use their QSEHRA funds. Also, if the employer contributes to an account and an employee doesn’t use the available funds in the year allocated, they don’t lose the money. Instead, the employee can save it for future needs, or the employer can retrieve it.
Atlanta GA Employee Benefit Plans and Employee Benefit Packages
A retirement savings plan is one of the benefits that employees often prioritize, although participation rates are low in companies that offer one.
For businesses that want to offer this support, there are good options for all company sizes. The SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension Individual Retirement Account) is an excellent choice for small firms with less than twenty workers. It’s flexible because the owner can decide whether to contribute or not each year.
Bigger companies may look at the SIMPLE IRA, which has more options. In either a SEP or SIMPLE plan, any contribution the business makes immediately belongs to the account holder with no vesting period. This waiver of vesting provides the employer with a safe harbor for compliance with nondiscrimination protocols.
And finally, significant corporations can support a 401(k), with more investment choices for the workforce.