Large & Small Business Group Health Insurance in Houston, Austin and Dallas, Texas
Large & Small Business Group Health Insurance Texas
For businesses small and large, employees are often their greatest investment. Offering high-quality health insurance is a great way to retain existing workers and recruit new ones as well as enhance productivity and workplace satisfaction.
Offering health benefits is a significant decision for Texas businesses. As a licensed insurance broker in the state, Selected Benefits is your resource for finding the best health insurance products and services for your employees.
As a leading health insurance broker in the Houston, Austin and Dallas areas, we help you navigate the often-challenging assortment of insurance plans and providers.
What is large and small business group health insurance?
Group medical coverage is a single policy issued to a collection of people, typically a business with employees. It covers all eligible employees and sometimes their dependents.
A primary benefit of group health insurance is the lower premium pricing due to the increased number of people getting coverage. Including more people opens up additional options, at generally lower prices, compared to buying policies individually. To summarize, group health insurance for large and small companies delivers significant value in the following ways:
- More comprehensive insurance plans offered
- Lower premiums for insurance plans in most cases
- Coverage for pre-existing conditions
- Better access to care through larger networks
- Tax incentives for providing health insurance to employees
- Improves employee morale
With group health for businesses, the insurer determines a premium price based on risk factors balanced over the entire insured group.
How does large and small business group health insurance work?
With group health insurance, the employer selects one plan or multiple ones, which are offered to employees. The premium costs are usually split between the employer and employee, and there is a minimum percentage rate the employer must contribute. Additional considerations include:
- Coverage is generally guaranteed
- Business must meet certain participation criteria to qualify for a group plan
- Shop for coverage at any time of the year
Generally speaking, any expenses an employer incurs related to health insurance for employees and any covered dependents are tax-deductible as ordinary business expenses. This makes large business group health insurance and small business group health insurance more affordable.
With just a little paperwork on your part, an employee can contribute to health insurance costs on a pre-tax basis. The business deducts premium costs from employee paychecks before state and federal taxes are calculated and levied.
This increases the employee’s take-home pay and lowers the amount of the employee’s taxable income. The result is a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.
Big Results for Business
Whether your business is a small start-up or a large company, Selected Benefits is your health insurance partner in the Houston, Austin and Dallas areas. We help businesses of all sizes get the right coverage at a lower cost without hassle.
We have relationships with all major health insurance providers and seek out the best options for you or your human resources department. Our health insurance experts offer strategic advice and feedback when selecting healthcare plans. Advantages of partnering with us include:
- Stay constantly informed
- Obtain unbiased information
- Get assistance with applications and enrollment processes
- Troubleshoot issues
At Selected Benefits, we fundamentally improve the way insurance works for your business by helping you save money on healthcare costs while keeping your employees healthy. Having strong employees boosts your bottom line.
Contact us to learn more about our Texas large business group health insurance and small business group health insurance support services.
Texas Large & Small Group Health Insurance
We, at Selected Benefits, offer a comprehensive selection of Small Business Group Medical Plans and Large Business Group Medical Plans from most all of the major health insurance carriers in Texas. We also offer an extensive array of ancillary products such as group dental and vision, group life insurance, short and long term group disability plans and more.
We will work work closely with either the owners or benefits manager of your company to enhance your employee benefits at a greatly reduced cost to your firm. Each client is different in what they want to offer, so it is imperative that we take a deep dive into what you currently have to see where we can add value and we strive to do this as quickly as possible.
Our health insurance carriers include, but are not limited to Aetna, Blue Cross, Cigna, Humana, United Healthcare, National General, Allied, Memorial Hermann and many others. We will shop you through traditional plans, underwritten plans and self-insured plans. We do this because our goal is to deliver what you need at the absolute lowest price without sacrificing quality. On average, companies that switch to us save $1,000 or more per employee and see their benefit costs kept down as low as possible year after year.
We use ACA plans for some of our groups that have challenging health conditions, but for employer groups that are healthier than normal, we like to shop you with underwritten and self-insured plans as we can often save your business between 15 and 30% over the best ACA related group premiums. Most insurance agencies don’t shop those carriers because they require more work and understanding on the front end and more support on the back end. We specialize in this because it is an incredible tool to save you money and we have the technology in place to make it happen smoothly. Case in point, we just recently saved a 21 person group over $60,000 per year using this approach. We use the same approach when searching for ancillary benefits such as group dental, group vision, long term disability and group life insurance.
Whether you have 150 employees and are shopping your benefits for the coming year or you are just now offering a group health plan for the first time, we can help. Simply call us at either (866) 270-6209 or fill out the short form to the right and we’ll start the process. One of our group specialists will be in touch very shortly thereafter.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
In the past few years, with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, we have watched the individual/family health insurance market slowly become eclipsed in popularity by the much more stable small, mid-sized and large employer group health insurance market.
The premiums for these policies have remained far steadier and generally provide much more value in comparison. Owners of both small and mid-sized to large businesses in Texas have the option to offer health insurance coverage to both their employees and their immediate families.
The insurance law in Texas defines a small employer as follows: any business with at least 2 employees, but no greater than 50 employees. Your mid-sized business is typically 50-100 employees while a large group would be 100+ employees. This definition holds no matter how many hours per week they work, so if you do choose to offer health, dental and vision insurance, you must make it available to all eligible employees and their dependents which include those working at least 30 hours per week.
As a general rule, the insurance carrier will require a minimum of 75% participation of all eligible employees in order to write the policy. A health insurance company that chooses to offer business group health insurance in Texas must make it available for purchase at any time during the year. An exception would be if the employer cannot meet the requirement of 75 percent participation, the insurance carrier, at its discretion, can require that the employer has to wait until the next season of open enrollment to purchase the health insurance coverage.
Affordable Care Act Requirements for Small Business Health Insurance Plans
Small Group Health Insurance Federal Requirements
The Federal law currently requires all policies, including Texas small business group health insurance plans, to contain the 10 essential health benefits as defined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Included in these are:
• Emergency services.
• Maternity including care of newborns.
• Prescription drug coverage
• Laboratory services
• Mental health and substance abuse to include counseling/psychotherapy
• Surgery and hospitalization
• Pediatric services to include dental and vision care.
• Preventive care, wellness services to include chronic disease management.
• Outpatient care without first being admitted to a hospital.
• Services/devices to help those with disabilities, chronic conditions or injuries gain and/or recover both mental and physical skills Please note that Grandfathered plans, which are defined as those that were purchased before March 23, 2010, are exempt from the requirement of including the 10 essential health benefits.
Also, please be aware that certain types of insurance coverage in Texas such as short term medical policies, indemnity policies, so-called limited benefit plans and specific disease policies such as critical illness or accident policies, are also not required to meet those same federal standards.
Now for some history of the Federal Tax Credit as it pertains to Health Insurance in Texas for Small Businesses. When President Obama enacted the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare”, this offered federal tax credits to small businesses that offer to their employees, health insurance including dental and vision insurance. Unfortunately, that credit was only around for fiscal tax years of 2010 through 2013.
The general idea was to make it less expensive for small business owners to offer their employees benefits before health insurance reform was fully implemented in the tax year 2014. This tax credit reimbursed small businesses that qualified, up to 35% of the annual premiums paid toward health, dental and vision insurance for its employees. For certain tax-exempt entities, the tax credit was a maximum of 25%. Companies had to meet the following criteria in order to receive the full tax credit:
1) Less than 25 full-time employees.
2) The average wage, per employee, must be below $50,000 per year.
3) Employers must contribute a minimum of 50% of the annual premium for employee coverage (dependents are excluded).
Those businesses that have less than 10 full-time employees and that pay an annual wage of less than $25,000 can still qualify for the full tax credit. The federal tax credit will be reduced for those entities that employ more full-time workers and higher wage earners until such a time when it is eliminated for those companies with greater than 25 full-time wage earners at an annual salary that exceeds $50,000. These rules of eligibility are primarily based on the number of full-time employees a company has on the books rather than the total number of employees.
This means that those businesses that employ part-time workers can possibly still qualify for the federal tax credit even if they employed more than 25 individuals.
Small & Large Group Health Insurance
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2-50 Employees / 50-100 Employees / 100+ Employees
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Small & Large Group Health Insurance
REQUEST A QUOTE
2-50 Employees / 50-100 Employees / 100+ Employees
"*" indicates required fields
Large & Small Business Group Health Insurance in Houston, Austin and Dallas, Texas
For businesses small and large, employees are often their greatest investment. Offering high-quality health insurance is a great way to retain existing workers and recruit new ones as well as enhance productivity and workplace satisfaction.
Offering health benefits is a significant decision for Texas businesses. As a licensed insurance broker in the state, Selected Benefits is your resource for finding the best health insurance products and services for your employees.
As a leading health insurance broker in the Houston, Austin and Dallas areas, we help you navigate the often-challenging assortment of insurance plans and providers.
What is large and small business group health insurance?
Group medical coverage is a single policy issued to a collection of people, typically a business with employees. It covers all eligible employees and sometimes their dependents.
A primary benefit of group health insurance is the lower premium pricing due to the increased number of people getting coverage. Including more people opens up additional options, at generally lower prices, compared to buying policies individually. To summarize, group health insurance for large and small companies delivers significant value in the following ways:
- More comprehensive insurance plans offered
- Lower premiums for insurance plans in most cases
- Coverage for pre-existing conditions
- Better access to care through larger networks
- Tax incentives for providing health insurance to employees
- Improves employee morale
With group health for businesses, the insurer determines a premium price based on risk factors balanced over the entire insured group.
How does large and small business group health insurance work?
With group health insurance, the employer selects one plan or multiple ones, which are offered to employees. The premium costs are usually split between the employer and employee, and there is a minimum percentage rate the employer must contribute. Additional considerations include:
- Coverage is generally guaranteed
- Business must meet certain participation criteria to qualify for a group plan
- Shop for coverage at any time of the year
Generally speaking, any expenses an employer incurs related to health insurance for employees and any covered dependents are tax-deductible as ordinary business expenses. This makes large business group health insurance and small business group health insurance more affordable.
With just a little paperwork on your part, an employee can contribute to health insurance costs on a pre-tax basis. The business deducts premium costs from employee paychecks before state and federal taxes are calculated and levied.
This increases the employee’s take-home pay and lowers the amount of the employee’s taxable income. The result is a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.
Big Results for Business
Whether your business is a small start-up or a large company, Selected Benefits is your health insurance partner in the Houston, Austin and Dallas areas. We help businesses of all sizes get the right coverage at a lower cost without hassle.
We have relationships with all major health insurance providers and seek out the best options for you or your human resources department. Our health insurance experts offer strategic advice and feedback when selecting healthcare plans. Advantages of partnering with us include:
- Stay constantly informed
- Obtain unbiased information
- Get assistance with applications and enrollment processes
- Troubleshoot issues
At Selected Benefits, we fundamentally improve the way insurance works for your business by helping you save money on healthcare costs while keeping your employees healthy. Having strong employees boosts your bottom line.
Contact us to learn more about our Texas large business group health insurance and small business group health insurance support services.
Texas Large & Small Group Health Insurance
We at Selected Benefits offer a comprehensive selection of Small Business Group Medical Plans and Large Business Group Medical Plans from most all of the major health insurance carriers in Texas. We also offer an extensive array of ancillary products such as group dental and vision, group life insurance, short and long term group disability plans and more.
We will work work closely with either the owners or benefits manager of your company to enhance your employee benefits at a greatly reduced cost to your firm. Each client is different in what they want to offer, so it is imperative that we take a deep dive into what you currently have to see where we can add value and we strive to do this as quickly as possible.
Our health insurance carriers include, but are not limited to Aetna, Blue Cross, Cigna, Humana, United Healthcare, National General, Allied, Memorial Hermann and many others. We will shop you through traditional plans, underwritten plans and self-insured plans. We do this because our goal is to deliver what you need at the absolute lowest price without sacrificing quality. On average, companies that switch to us save $1,000 or more per employee and see their benefit costs kept down as low as possible year after year.
We use ACA plans for some of our groups that have challenging health conditions, but for employer groups that are healthier than normal, we like to shop you with underwritten and self-insured plans as we can often save your business between 15 and 30% over the best ACA related group premiums. Most insurance agencies don’t shop those carriers because they require more work and understanding on the front end and more support on the back end. We specialize in this because it is an incredible tool to save you money and we have the technology in place to make it happen smoothly. Case in point, we just recently saved a 21 person group over $60,000 per year using this approach. We use the same approach when searching for ancillary benefits such as group dental, group vision, long term disability and group life insurance.
Whether you have 150 employees and are shopping your benefits for the coming year or you are just now offering a group health plan for the first time, we can help. Simply call us at either (866) 270-6209 or fill out the short form to the right and we’ll start the process. One of our group specialists will be in touch very shortly thereafter.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
In the past few years, with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, we have watched the individual/family health insurance market slowly become eclipsed in popularity by the much more stable small, mid-sized and large employer group health insurance market.
The premiums for these policies have remained far steadier and generally provide much more value in comparison. Owners of both small and mid-sized to large businesses in Texas have the option to offer health insurance coverage to both their employees and their immediate families.
The insurance law in Texas defines a small employer as follows: any business with at least 2 employees, but no greater than 50 employees. Your mid-sized business is typically 50-100 employees while a large group would be 100+ employees. This definition holds no matter how many hours per week they work, so if you do choose to offer health, dental and vision insurance, you must make it available to all eligible employees and their dependents which include those working at least 30 hours per week.
As a general rule, the insurance carrier will require a minimum of 75% participation of all eligible employees in order to write the policy. A health insurance company that chooses to offer business group health insurance in Texas must make it available for purchase at any time during the year. An exception would be if the employer cannot meet the requirement of 75 percent participation, the insurance carrier, at its discretion, can require that the employer has to wait until the next season of open enrollment to purchase the health insurance coverage.
Affordable Care Act Requirements for Small Business Health Insurance Plans
Small Group Health Insurance Federal Requirements
The Federal law currently requires all policies, including Texas small business group health insurance plans, to contain the 10 essential health benefits as defined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Included in these are:
• Emergency services.
• Maternity including care of newborns.
• Prescription drug coverage
• Laboratory services
• Mental health and substance abuse to include counseling/psychotherapy
• Surgery and hospitalization
• Pediatric services to include dental and vision care.
• Preventive care, wellness services to include chronic disease management.
• Outpatient care without first being admitted to a hospital.
• Services/devices to help those with disabilities, chronic conditions or injuries gain and/or recover both mental and physical skills Please note that Grandfathered plans, which are defined as those that were purchased before March 23, 2010, are exempt from the requirement of including the 10 essential health benefits.
Also, please be aware that certain types of insurance coverage in Texas such as short term medical policies, indemnity policies, so-called limited benefit plans and specific disease policies such as critical illness or accident policies, are also not required to meet those same federal standards.
Now for some history of the Federal Tax Credit as it pertains to Health Insurance in Texas for Small Businesses. When President Obama enacted the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare”, this offered federal tax credits to small businesses that offer to their employees, health insurance including dental and vision insurance. Unfortunately, that credit was only around for fiscal tax years of 2010 through 2013.
The general idea was to make it less expensive for small business owners to offer their employees benefits before health insurance reform was fully implemented in the tax year 2014. This tax credit reimbursed small businesses that qualified, up to 35% of the annual premiums paid toward health, dental and vision insurance for its employees. For certain tax-exempt entities, the tax credit was a maximum of 25%. Companies had to meet the following criteria in order to receive the full tax credit:
1) Less than 25 full-time employees.
2) The average wage, per employee, must be below $50,000 per year.
3) Employers must contribute a minimum of 50% of the annual premium for employee coverage (dependents are excluded).
Those businesses that have less than 10 full-time employees and that pay an annual wage of less than $25,000 can still qualify for the full tax credit. The federal tax credit will be reduced for those entities that employ more full-time workers and higher wage earners until such a time when it is eliminated for those companies with greater than 25 full-time wage earners at an annual salary that exceeds $50,000. These rules of eligibility are primarily based on the number of full-time employees a company has on the books rather than the total number of employees.
This means that those businesses that employ part-time workers can possibly still qualify for the federal tax credit even if they employed more than 25 individuals.