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Your Business in Having Healthy Employees

Joyce Morse

July 29, 2014

Even if your small business is not required to provide health coverage for employees, you may want to consider adding health insurance to your list of benefits. It can often help you attract better quality employees.

You must make some decisions before selecting your coverage level and type.

Understanding Legal Responsibility

You will have to make sure you follow federal and state regulations for the kind of coverage you decide to add. This impacts what services the plan you select must cover.

Some other considerations include:

• Will you cover only full-time staff or include part-time employees as well?

• What will the waiting period be for new employees?

• What are the eligibility requirements for new staff?

These decisions impact how you present the plan to your employees and applicants and must be made before introducing the coverage.

Comparing Plans

First, you must decide what type of coverage you want for your employees.

This often means determining what services you want the plan to cover and then comparing the coverage level.

For instance, many plans cover expenses for surgery, but the specific requirements may vary. One plan may require it to be conducted on an outpatient basis.

Another plan may cover 100% but only if you use a network provider. Another plan may only cover 70% but doesn't differentiate between in-network and out of network.

With the Affordable Care Act, insurance plans have changed to meet requirements.

In addition, you will have separate requirements based on the state where you operate. Certain service must be covered so it is important to know what you have to include when you are comparing prices.

Choosing a health insurance plan can get confusing, which is why it is important to know the laws that apply to your company before you make a decision.

Initiating Coverage

Before you make your final selection, remember that once you decide on coverage and put rules in place, you must stick with them. This includes coverage for dependents. You must define who a dependent is and decide if you are going to pay a portion of the premiums.

When considering the waiting period, it generally cannot be longer than 90 days. You do not have to implement a waiting period, but you may not extend one for an unreasonable amount of time.

One of the considerations is how much turnover you have. If you are in a business that experiences a high turnover rate, you may want to institute the 90-day period to reduce your operating costs.

Don't forget about your competition when considering health insurance and the rules that apply.

If you don't offer comparable benefits, you may have a more difficult time attracting the best employees. Instead, they will go to the competition.

You must make sure you do not violate any federal or state laws when implementing rules on your health coverage.

You also want to ensure that you make the best decision on health insurance for your small business and employees.

The choices you make could give you an edge over the competition and ensure that your small business is successful.

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