Talking With Insurance Companies

Some of the employee benefits that are most important to workers are health-related benefits. If you want to give your business's employees valuable benefits, consider making these.

Group Medical Insurance

The most important health-related insurance that a business can offer is group medical insurance. This is the insurance that pays for covered doctor visits, surgeries, and other medical treatments. It's the most expensive, but also the one that provides employees with the greatest benefit.

Many employees specifically seek out a job that offers group medical insurance as one of the included employee benefits. Some employees want group medical insurance because they can't afford individual health insurance. Other employees want group medical insurance so that they pay only some of their health insurance policy's premiums.

Health Savings Account

A health savings account is a bank account that offers tax benefits. It's not actual insurance coverage, but it works in conjunction with a specific type of medical insurance plan. 

If employees are offered a high-deductible health plan, which is a low-cost medical insurance plan that's available as a group plan, then employees can contribute to an associated health savings account. Anything they contribute to the account won't be taxed, so long as the money is ultimately withdrawn to pay for medical expenses.

Contributions to a health savings account automatically save employees whatever their income tax bracket is. Consider an employee who contributes $1,000 to an account, and is taxed at a rate of 22 percent. The account would result in a $220 savings on this employee's tax bill.

A health savings account is only available to employees if the group health plan that's included in their employee benefits meets the federal standard for a high-deductible health plan.

Flexible Savings Account

A flexible savings account is another bank account, but it also complements a group health insurance plan.

If you choose to offer employees a flexible savings account as one of their employee benefits, your business will directly fund this account for each employee. You can decide how much each account is funded.

Employees can withdraw the funds in their flexible spending account to pay for medical costs that aren't covered by their group medical insurance policy. They might use money from the flexible spending account for copays, coinsurance, dental appointments, glasses, and other expenses that medical insurance might not cover.

A flexible savings account can thus be an alternative to offering employees dental and/or vision insurance coverages, which might cost more.

To learn more about potential options for employee benefits, contact an insurance company in your area.