Group Insurance, Group Benefits in Gainesville, FL – Hartfield Insurance Group
Providing coverage for the employees working in your small business is crucial, and this often means providing group insurance benefits to your employees. Group insurance can be a complicated bundle of policy options to understand, but the professionals working for the Hartfield Insurance Group can help you understand what coverage you should offer to enhance your employee’s lives. Employees in the Gainesville community deserve the best, and we want to give you the tools needed to provide the best.
Offering group benefits to your employees is not only compassionate, but it allows your small business to remain competitive with other firms in the area; any business with two or more employees can offer group insurance benefits.
While these group benefits may only include health benefits by default, you can purchase group dental, vision, disability, life and long-term care to offer a comprehensive insurance plan to your Gainesville-based employees.
Group Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
Group benefit plans often include health care plans, with dental and vision coverage being a commonly included addition. The use of group insurance to provide comprehensive medical coverage to employees is a commonly expected condition of employment among employees. Additionally, it’s legally required that group benefits be provided if more than 50 employees work at your small business.
There are four variations of group insurance coverage you commonly encounter in Florida, and these are:
- Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO)
- Point-Of-Service plans (POS)
- Health Maintenance Organization, Open Access (HMO)
- Health Maintenance Organization, Gatekeeper (HMO)
Each of these variations can work for your business, depending on your needs. No one type of coverage is considered better than any other type.
Preferred Provider Organizations create a network of predetermined providers that give their policyholders a reason to work within the network, financial incentive. If you go out of network, you can often get coverage, though your PPO may not subsidize as much of the cost.
Point-Of-Service plans work similar to a PPO in that they have lower negotiated costs with medical providers. However, if you are referred to an out of network provider by your physician, your POS plan will often cover more of the costs.
Health Maintenance Organizations come in two varieties, an open access option and a gatekeeper option. With the open access option, you have more flexibility to choose which professional to visit; this only applies to in-network providers. If you choose to go out of network, there is no financial assistance from the HMO.
With the gatekeeper option, your primary care physician will normally be your first point of contact, and they can determine if a referral to another medical professional, inside or outside the network, is necessary.
Group Disability Insurance
Group disability insurance works by providing your employees with coverage if they are injured or otherwise unable to work due to employment-related causes. This coverage can provide your employees with a portion of their salary for a predetermined length of time, usually specified in the policy, or until they return to work, whichever occurs first.
You may also need coverage for long-term disability, which occurs when an employee is removed from the work environment for an extended period, or permanently, and it’s due to a workplace-related loss. This policy coverage often takes action when the short-term disability run out.
Group Life Insurance
An essential coverage for your small business, group life insurance provides coverage if an employee is to pass away during their employment.
When an individual passes away during their employment with your business, it can leave their family or loved ones without the benefit of their employment. If that individual was the sole provider, it could leave the family without a source of income. Life insurance helps to process the funeral expenses for the deceased while offsetting a part of the financial loss.
Group Long-Term Care Insurance
This group benefit offers coverage for any individual that requires assistance with their activities of daily living, usually at least two of these activities; this is sometimes abbreviated as ADLs. These activities are:
- Eating
- Toileting
- Continence
- Dressing
- Bathing
- Walking
- Transferring
Age is often not the determining factor here, but rather the need for the individual to continue living even though their capacity for daily life has diminished.
Individuals are living longer and now encounter the need for assistance in their older age. Some employers offer an actual long-term care policy, while others may just make the policy available to the employee; the employee would pay the associated expenses. While some employees may purchase their coverage elsewhere, group long-term coverage can be beneficial when employees do not qualify for individual coverage.
Do you have questions or would like to talk to someone about group benefits? Contact us!