In 2014, the Affordable Care Act or ACA changed the way insurance companies were allowed to rate small group health insurance plans. Prior to the ACA, insurers were allowed to rate plans based on factors such as insured members’ age/gender/health, location of the employer, and SIC code or nature of business. Post ACA, insurers are only allowed to rate plans based on age, geography, family size, and tobacco use.
Unfortunately, this new form of underwriting resulted in higher health insurance premiums for most employers so the ACA allowed temporary “transitional” relief. Simply put, transitional relief allows employers to temporarily maintain their existing health insurance plan, but in many cases, they are not allowed to make any plan or benefit changes to help negate premium increases when the plan renews. As a result, many employers are forced with two unfavorable decisions. 1. Remain on a transitional plan and watch rates continue to increase; 2. Move to an ACA regulated plan that often times is more expensive than the transitional health plan.
However, if you are an employer with 2-100 employees here in the U.S., owned by a foreign parent with more than 100 employees globally, and are located in IL, IN, NY, NJ, MI, OH, KY, TN, GA, SC, CA, or TX, there may be a unique solution for you. Nippon Life Benefits offers these employers an Affiliated Trust Product that is not required to follow the new ACA rating requirements. The Affiliated Trust offers flexible benefit designs, generally at a very competitive price. Other key features include:
- Nippon Life Benefits is a subsidiary of Nippon Life Insurance Company of Japan; one of the world’s largest mutual life insurance companies
- Specialization in Employee Benefits: Medical, Life, STD, LTD, Dental, and Vision.
- National Provider Network through Aetna Signature Administrators and PHCS
- Rx through CVS Caremark
- Multi-Lingual Customer Service including English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish
- 2015 AM Best Rating A- (Excellent): 2014 Standard & Poors Rating A+
To see if this unique group health insurance solution may help your company, please contact your CDH representative or John Jaeger at OneDigital Health & Benefits; [email protected]