How to research small business health insurance plans in NY

Figuring out the first step in a process is usually the hardest part of the problem. Once you can figure out the steps in the process, it is easy to follow those steps and accomplish your goals. So, what is the process to research small business health insurance plans in NY? Let us break this down into 4 easy to follow steps.

Step 1: Decide if having your own doctors in the plan is more important than having access to many doctors that might not be your own.

In other words, is it mandatory that your doctors participate in the plan you are looking? This means you might have to take a plan that is not the best in terms of benefits and cost, just to make sure your current providers participate. We find this to be the most important factor when choosing a small business health insurance plan. Many business owners bypass better priced plans if they require their current doctors to be part of the network. To get the best plan rates and benefits, you sometimes must sacrifice a doctor or two of your choosing.

Step 2: Do some doctor research.

Check to see if your doctors are on the plans you are looking at. For NY groups, you can search on our website page for all carriers and networks for your doctors. You can also call your providers directly and ask them if they participate in any of the networks available to NY small businesses from the link above. Be careful that you ask for the specific network and not just the insurance company (ie my doctor takes Empire BC/BS is not good enough, we need to know if the provider is on, as an example, the Empire BCBS PPO/EPO network instead). You can also decide that you wish to offer a plan with multiple networks and options, regardless if your provider participates, knowing there will be many providers to choose from. All carriers and networks offer a large array of providers in multiple specialties including multiple Hospitals and outpatient settings.

Step 3: decide who in your firm will be eligible to join your plan.

You can offer small business health insurance to all full-time employees, or you can limit enrollment to only certain classes of employees such as management. You should consider paying towards your employees’ coverage as well. This will help create an incentive to both hire and retain quality employees. All NY small business health insurance premiums are deductible by the business, and if set up thru a Premium Only Plan (POP125) the employee contribution towards their coverage can be done on a pre-tax basis as well.

Step 4: Call a NY health insurance broker to assist you in getting quotes

As a licensed NY health insurance broker, Peak Advisors Inc is perfectly qualified to help you manage the last step – finding a plan. We can help you narrow down your choices based on the provider information you researched in steps 1 and 2. We can also discuss multiple carrier options to get you more provider choices under one roof. As a NY small business health insurance broker, we can recommend plans to accomplish your goals and coverage needs for your business, and help you set up your plan in the most tax effective way possible.

We can also help answer questions on participation, network analysis, carrier feedback, benefit comparisons and plan implementation.

So after you do your own research and are ready to take the last step, give us a call at 631-207-1800 or email us at info@peakinsuranceadvisors.com so we can help you set up your own small business health insurance plan for your company. We would be happy to help!