How to Gather Information for a Group Health Insurance Quote

When you decide to provide your employees with health insurance, you must shop around for the best coverage options. You can easily get a quote online or by contacting an insurance broker directly. To complete the process quickly, collect all the required information before you start looking for plans. You will need it in order to compare one quote to another.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Record qualifying information for each employee, by name. This includes their date of birth, their present insurance status and gender. List full-time employees separately from part-time ones.

2. Find out if any employees will need insurance for their dependents. A group policy quote is often based on coverage for individual employees, family plans or some combination of both.

3. Interview each eligible employee about previous group or individual health insurance claims for catastrophic illnesses. Many brokers and insurance companies will not request this information before making your quote. They will require it at the time of enrollment. The health history of one employee could increase rates for the entire group.

4. Discuss possible group plan features with all employees. Determine if your policy quote will include costs for maternity benefits, dental coverage, catastrophic illnesses, prescription coverage, co-payments and deductibles.

5. Determine which plan features, deductibles and optional add-ons are best suited to the majority of eligible employees and the company's benefit budget. Generally, employees and employers share 50 to 75 percent of the monthly premium costs for the eligible employee. Most small businesses pay only 50 percent of the cost for dependents.

6. Contact a reputable insurance broker that represents at least three of the companies that you are considering as the group health insurance policy provider. Review the features of their most popular plans, minimum coverage plans and Cadillac plans.

7. Visit the AM Best website to locate health insurance companies that are licensed in your state (see Resources below). Compare industry rankings of group insurance providers. Eliminate those whose rating is below industry par. Registration is free.

Resources

• Review group health options at allbusiness.com.
• Find insurer ratings at ambest.com.

[ronaldroadster]

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