What Employees Need to Know About Group Health Insurance
When it comes to group health insurance, it is imperative that employees do not feel left in the dark or have questions about their policy. The standard packet of information, provided by the insurance company, may not be enough to fully explain the benefits offered or how to go about taking advantage of them. Employees often become nervous and fail to ask important questions for fear of being made fun of. In order to make sure that your employees know the whole scope of the policy, here are a few key points to hit when presenting.
Need to Know Facts About Group Health Insurance
- Of course, the first question that runs through an employee’s mind is how much they will have to pay out of their paycheck each period. As the employer in a group health policy in California, it is your responsibility to provide at least some payment towards the monthly premiums. It will help ease the worries of employees if you let them know how much you are providing and how much they will have to pay. Employees should know, before signing a document, how much they are required to dish out each paycheck.
- The size of the deductible is another major concern for employees. By providing the deductible amount for each plan, it will help them fit the program into their financial budgets and also to decide if they would like to set up a health savings account.
- Health savings accounts are going in popularity within California health insurance companies. As a great way to get tax benefits as well as pay part of the deductible, a health savings account eligible policy is a good point to cover.
- Exclusions within the policy are always a tense time for employees because they imagine if that scenario would happen to them. It is important to make these exclusions known to the employees otherwise you could be sued under California law. Get the list of exclusions from your California health insurance provider in order to make sure you do not miss any.
- If there are any benefit riders, which can be used to cancel out health insurance policy exclusions, it is important for your employee to know. For instance, if dental care is excluded in your main policy, it might be worth the trouble to find out if there are any dental benefit riders offered by the insurance company for employees to add.
- It is important for you to tell your employees if the policy can be canceled. There is usually a cancellation clause that allows the issuing insurance company to cancel the policy, even sometimes without any good reason.
- Policy renewal makes a difference to employees. It is important to let them know if there are certain steps they need to take to have their policy renewed or if it will automatically renew before it expires.
- Are there any medical exams or physicals needed in order to be eligible for coverage? Many California health insurance companies require an initial physical before and employee can be accepted into a group health plan. There are several concerns with these physicals, namely being who will pay for the exam and will work time be missed.
- Flexible health plans are the new way to cover insurance. Unlike the old cookie-cutter health insurance problems, many businesses will offer an HMO or a PPO style plan. This is usually only useful if only a handful of employees want to take advantage of a HSA eligible plan while most prefer an HMO.
- Finally, are pre-existing conditions covered? Employees with pre-existing conditions might run the risk of affecting their group health coverage. Make sure they discuss all pre-existing conditions with a California health insurance representative to make sure they have the proper coverage they will need.
These common group health insurance facts can help shed some light on how group health insurance works. Knowing your policy and your rights is the first step in becoming a conscientious consumer.