Group Plans
Need to know Group Insurance Options? We can help. With over 35 years in the insurance industry, we help businesses of all sizes find the insurance options that best suit their company’s needs and company culture.
We represent all of the major insurance carriers for health, dental, life, disability, health savings accounts, health reimbursement accounts, and more.
We cater to businesses looking for individual attention and solutions.
Self-employed, small or large business- Insurance Options of the Carolinas is your resource for all your group products. Contact us today to learn about the insurance options available to your group.
Every fully insured plan sold after January 1st, 2014 that meets the Affordable Care Act / ACA guidelines, offers 10 essential health benefits. Regardless of the ACA coverage you choose, each plan provides coverage within these essential health benefit:
No lifetime maximums, low out of pocket costs, and no waiting periods for pre-existing conditions.
Other Options to Consider as an Employer
A Health Savings Account / HSA is a consumer driven healthcare plan that drives maximum employee engagement. Health Savings Accounts (HSA) allow employees to set aside a portion of their paychecks into a custodial account to pay expenses not covered by another health plan. To contribute to an HSA, the employee must also be covered by an IRS-qualified high deductible health plan. Employers may contribute to employees’ HSA Unlike FSA accounts, unused funds can be carried forward to the future. An HSA plan is also portable and can be taken to a new employer or used at retirement.
A Health Reimbursement Arrangement is a tax-advantaged benefit that allows both employees and employers to save on the cost of healthcare. An HRA is funded with employer dollars to pay expenses not covered by another health plan. An employer can opt for its HRA to pay some or all of the health expenses allowed by the IRS. For example, an HRA could pay all eligible medical expenses, including premiums for health and long term care insurance or the HRA could be limited to cover only dental or vision expenses. Although an HRA can have an option to carry forward unused funds to the future or for retirement, an employee cannot take their HRA funds to a new employer. This is a unique way to fund health costs while controlling increases in cost to the employer.
Employers may deduct the employee's portion of the company-sponsored insurance premium directly from the employee's paycheck before taxes are deducted.
In an FSA, employees may set aside on a pre-tax basis a pre-established amount of money per plan year. The employee can use the funds in the FSA to pay for eligible medical care, dependent care, or transportation expenses.
Benefits to the Employer
Employers may add an FSA Plan as a key element in their overall benefit package. Because an FSA Plan offers a tax-advantage, employers experience tax savings from reduced FICA, FUTA, SUTA, and Workers' Compensation taxes on participating employees. These tax savings reduce or eliminate altogether the various costs associated with offering the plan. Meanwhile, employee satisfaction is heightened because participating employees experience a "raise" at no additional cost to the employer.
Increased participation equals greater tax savings to the employer. Thus, to promote participation in the plan, employers may wish to contribute to each employee's FSA account.
A Cafeteria Plan (includes Premium Only Plans and Flexible Spending Accounts) is an employee benefits program designed to take advantage of Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. A Cafeteria Plan allows employees to pay certain qualified expenses (such as health insurance premiums) on a pre-tax basis; thereby, reducing their total taxable income and increasing their spendable/take-home income. Funds set aside in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) are not subject to federal, state, or Social Security taxes. On average, employees save from $.25 to $.49 for EVERY dollar they contribute to the FSA.
Vision is one of the most sought-after voluntary benefits in today's workplace. Vision plans typically cover additional routine eye exams outside of your medical plan, contact lens fitting that many medical plans do not cover and Lasik eye surgery discounts.
Group Vision Benefits
Most dental plans come with the freedom to visit any licensed dentist you choose. Dental plans typically cover preventative services such as your check-ups and cleanings, basic services like routine fillings, extractions and major services including crowns, bridges and dentures. Whether you are looking at offering a voluntary or employer-funded plan, we can help choose the coverage that’s right for your company.
Group Dental Benefits
Life insurance helps to ensure that your family and loved ones are protected against financial difficulties in the event of a premature death. Whether you are looking for an employer-funded term life plan for your employees and/or the opportunity for employees to purchase additional life insurance for themselves or for dependents, we can help find a quality plan at affordable rates.
Group Life Benefits
Types of Life Insurance
Term life insurance provides protection for a specified period of time. A death benefit is paid to the beneficiary if the insured dies within a specified period of time while the policy is still in force.
Whole life insurance is permanent life insurance and provides protection for life. As long as premiums are paid, a death benefit is paid to the beneficiary. The premiums for whole life insurance policies are designed to remain level over time. In addition, these policies accumulate cash values on a tax-deferred basis.
Universal life insurance is permanent life insurance. As long as premiums are paid, a death benefit is paid to the beneficiary. These policies are different from whole life insurance policies because they offer the policy owner some flexibility to change the premium payments and death benefit. The death benefit may be increased subject to insurability or decreased, and the premiums can also be increased, decreased or skipped. Universal life insurance policies may be purchased with one of two different death benefit options.
The effective communication of employee benefit cost pressures and plan design changes are critical to the success of any employee benefit plan. Employee benefit statements (“hidden paycheck”) are an effective human resource information tool to communicate the total compensation value of employer-sponsored benefits. Using a customized, individualized employee benefit statement, each employee can better understand the financial commitment the employer has made.
Employee Benefit Statements - "Hidden Paycheck" Summary
All employers with more than 20 employees must comply with the federal statute commonly known as COBRA. As many as 95% of employers are not in compliance with this law. When this is not your main focus, it is hard to keep up with ever-changing regulations. We can work with you to provide access to COBRA administrators who will take all the necessary steps required by law to ensure all aspects of compliance.
Full-Service Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) Administration
More and more companies are looking to the Web to communicate internal polices and updates for their employees. Some of these sites will give employees access to employee handbooks, vacation/sick policies, insurance benefit summaries; as well as resources for HR Management.