What Do I Need to Set Up Health Insurance for My Small Business?

Small Business Guide to Health Insurance

One of the ways to keep good employees is to offer good employee benefits, such as health and life insurance. The ACA requires small businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to offer a qualified health plan to eligible employees, ensure that the health plan is affordable and to complete the required paperwork for the IRS. This may seem like a daunting task, especially if you don’t have a full-time HR person on staff. But there are many guides that can help you through the process. 

Dealing with an insurance broker or health insurance agent, you can find plans that will fit your business needs and get quotes about different plans. There are thousands of different plans, but your broker can help you narrow your options to find the one that makes sense. But once you’ve found that plan, you’ll need to gather some documents to set it up. 

Your Document Checklist 

Here are the basic things you’ll need to get your healthcare plan ready for your employees: 

• Business name, federal EIN, business start date and address 
• Workers’ comp insurance 
• Your health insurance provider will want to make sure that your employees are covered if they get injured at work. You’ll need to provide the current levels of workers’ comp insurance that you provide. 
• North American Industry Classification (NAICS) 
• This code classifies your business for statistical agencies who collect and analyze data. The health insurance company uses it when it passes on information to the government. 
• Proof of payroll 

You need to provide information about the number of employees who will be signing up for health coverage. The health insurance company will eventually need names, addresses, ages, and dependent information, but at the beginning, you should just look at eligible employees. If you’re covering one full-time employee, you must cover them all. 

Going through the steps of getting a group plan can seem overwhelming, but the benefits to your business are great. Healthy employees are productive employees. Even if your business is too small to be mandated to provide health insurance, it might be something you should look into. 

One good tip for selecting the right plan for your employees is to ask them what they want in their insurance. By understanding their priorities, you can make better decisions. Of course, you’re never going to be able to please everyone, but at least you can find some balance. For more information about offering employee benefits and health insurance, like us on Facebook, find us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our blog.