What Information Is Required to Get a Group Insurance Quote?

Before you start shopping for a group insurance plan, you´ll want to familiarize yourself with your current plan (if you have one). What are your current premiums? Do you know who your carrier is? Are your rates being increased for any reason?

Keep a copy of your policy handy in case your broker has other questions on your existing coverage.

If you don´t currently have group insurance, or you´re not in a position to understand your current plan, at a minimum you should collect the following information from each employee:

• Name
• Birth date
• Gender
• Dependent status

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Benefits of a Disability Insurance Plan Disability Insurance Benefits

Insurance for your business is expensive. What if there was a product out there that would provide significant benefits to your employees while saving your business money? Sounds too good to be true? Well a gap or disability policy plan can provide a significant safety net to your employees and provide tax savings to your business.
Disability or gap plans are insurance products designed to supplement traditional health insurance plans. The disability plan typically offers the following benefits that do not exist with traditional health insurance:

• Income Replacement - While the employee cannot work, the plan would provide replacement income.
• Out-of-Pocket Expense Payments - Deductibles, co-pays, out-of-network costs, and a myriad of other out-of-pocket expenses confront seriously ill or injured employees.
• Short or Long-Term Disability Coverage - Benefits are paid in the case of a short or long-term disability.

Plans are presented to your employees as a series of options designed to address what the employee can afford in coordination with their age, family status, income level and other factors. The employee makes this determination. AFLAC (the company with the duck) is probably the best known to employees. The company has been around for over fifty years and its website is very informative. AFLAC's approach to presenting disability and gap plans is to point out to the employer that the plan will be administered by the insurer, paid for by the employees, and resulting in a savings to the company. Often the employer will contribute some level of benefits though, so the idea that it will be cost free to the employer is not always the case. But, it is still an excellent benefit to offer.
Tax savings are achieved because the employee can contribute to the premiums on a pre-tax basis. This is a huge advantage. Because the contributions are pre-tax, the employer realizes a lower taxable payroll for FICA and FUTA purposes. Thus, the employer pays less FICA and FUTA taxes. Generally, for every $1,000 in pre-tax premium towards the plan, and resulting lower payroll, the employer would save roughly $76.50 in FICA and FUTA payroll taxes. Consult with your tax advisor for specifics to your situation.
Employees receive a similar tax savings. As the premiums are withheld pre-tax, their tax withholding for that pay period and overall tax liability is less. Along with the tax savings, the employee receives a significant benefit in the form of a solid safety net for their family.
Disability and gap plans can provide significant benefits for your employees and promote employee retention and loyalty.

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Understanding Your Insurance Carrier

Understanding how health insurance companies operate can help you realize how premiums are set. It can also help you appreciate the forces that influence the coverage and service you and your employees receive.

While the structure of companies vary, departments generally include:

Executive and administrative. This department, headed by the company president, oversees the operations of the company. Decisions made at this level, such as whether to reorganize or move company headquarters, can indirectly affect your premiums. It's doubtful that you'll interact directly with an executive, but corporate culture is generally set by those at the top, and can trickle down to your experience as the customer.

Marketing. This includes product design, advertising, and public relations. You and your employees are affected by the health insurance plans that marketing departments create, plus any decisions they might make that change health plans in the future.

Sales and local support. For most businesses, sales falls under marketing, but it's an area so important to insurance companies' bottom lines that it often stands alone.

Also called the agency department, this department is concerned with hiring, training, and compensating its sales force or agents. This department also provides backup customer service to agents who frequently work in the field.

Agents are licensed to sell insurance on behalf of insurance companies and work on commission. Agents are your first point of contact with insurers, and act as your customer service representative after you've purchased a policy. For example, when you hire a new employee, you'll probably send their health insurance paperwork to your agent's office for processing.

Some insurance companies don't have agents but sell directly to consumers. These companies can have lower rates, but you might not receive the same level of service as you would from an agent.

Actuarial. This department employs mathematicians and statisticians who set categories for evaluating applicants and fixing premiums.

Underwriting. Underwriters review the medical histories of plan participants and decide whether applicants receive coverage. Underwriters also set plan rates based on the demographic, geographic, and risk categories outlined by actuarial departments.

Policy issue. Workers in this area put together the paperwork that goes out to customers.

Investments or financial. All companies have funds on hand that they invest. The investment or financial department, usually headed by the treasurer of the company, selects and manages an insurance company's investments. These investments and their performance can affect your premiums.

Accounting. This department includes both bookkeeping and auditing. Auditors check to see that branch offices or agencies are keeping their accounts correctly.

Claims. The claims department decides whether to pay a medical bill submitted by you or your doctor. To make this decision, claims departments first look at whether the person who received care is eligible for coverage. For example, your company might have a waiting period before employees are insurable, or you might offer coverage only to full-time employees.

Next, claims departments decide if the medical care provided is covered under the plan. Claims departments also keep track of whether you or your employees have met your deductibles.

Claims departments will often work directly with doctors or hospitals to settle claims. However, if a bill goes unpaid, patients are ultimately responsible. That's when you or your employees will need to contact your claims department to get to the root of the delay.

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