Health insurance is an important consideration for any small business, as it has a direct impact on the well-being of employees and their families. As you search for a health plan for your small business, make sure you choose one that checks as many boxes as possible to provide your employees with high-value, quality care.

Comparing small business health insurance plans is vital for ensuring that you offer your employees a plan that meets their needs and offers them the support they seek. Here at Redirect Health, we aim to make health insurance simple. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you should look for when comparing health insurance plans for small businesses so you can provide your employees with the support they care about.

The Benefits of Having a Small Business Health Plan

Offering a health plan as a small business presents several benefits for employers and employees. Providing employees with a health plan option as a small business can lead to more satisfied employees and a range of additional benefits that follow. Some of the benefits of offering your employees a health plan include:

Better staff recruitment – Health benefits are an important consideration for prospective employees when searching for a new position. By offering health insurance as part of your benefits package, you can make your job positions more attractive to job seekers.
Retaining top talent – Just as health benefits support better staff recruitment, they are also a reason for your current employees to stay put. If your current employees are happy with their benefits, they are less likely to seek a new position elsewhere.
Increased productivity – Navigating a health concern can be both stressful and physically demanding for employees. Offering health insurance to employees keeps them in the best shape and improves their quality of life, allowing them to be more productive and generate better business outcomes.
Saving costs – By investing in health insurance plans now, you can save yourself money down the line, as employees with health insurance are better able to manage their health concerns, which leads to fewer callouts.

With all the benefits of employer-sponsored health insurance plans, offering health plans to employees is more than an expense—it is an investment. By taking the proper steps to offer the best plan for your employees, you can ensure you maximize this investment.

Points To Consider for Small Business Health Insurance Plans

There are many options for small business health insurance plans available, but many of them may not offer the support that your small business and its employees are looking for. A quality health insurance plan is valued by employees, so it is an essential consideration for small business owners to make to keep their employees happy and healthy. You should consider the following points when evaluating health insurance options for small businesses.

1. Understand Employee Needs and Family Coverage

It’s essential to provide your employees with coverage that they can use. There is little point in offering health insurance to your employees if they will not find value in it. Therefore, employee input is crucial to the research process.

Consider asking your employees what they want in a health insurance plan or sending out surveys to gather their thoughts. Of course, you can’t ask personal health questions, but collect information about your employees and their families to ensure you can provide them with a plan that meets their needs. Ask questions like:

Would you participate in an employer-sponsored health plan?
Do you prefer a lower monthly premium or lower out-of-pocket costs?
Do you have a preferred healthcare provider already?
Are there certain benefits you value more than others? These can include telehealth and urgent care.
What coverage areas are most important to you in a health insurance plan?

With the answers to these questions, you can begin to decide the ideal plan that encompasses the preferences of as many of your employees as possible.

2. Assess Your Business Needs

In addition to the other crucial factors, you must consider how your specific business needs will influence the plan you choose. Before researching too deeply into all your options, frame your search by considering these questions:

How many employees are likely to participate?
What is your business’s budget for health insurance coverage?
How much are you willing to spend for a plan’s minimum employer contribution?
How will your business’s size and location affect your tax requirements?
What type of customer service support do you prefer?

Understanding your business needs will allow you to narrow down your selection into the most realistic plans. This reflection process will ensure that you choose a plan that will provide you and your employees with sustainable coverage.

3. Evaluate Cost and Affordability

After coverage, cost and affordability are the most important considerations for most plan recipients. Your employees value a plan that provides them with quality coverage but also fits into their monthly budget.

One of the initial costs you will encounter is monthly premiums. This premium will be the amount that you pay each month to keep the plan active. For those who don’t visit the doctor regularly, the monthly premium is the main cost to consider for one’s budget. However, you will have to consider a range of other costs as well.

As an employer, you must also consider the minimum employer contribution, or the amount that a plan requires you to pay toward employee plans each month. This amount usually ranges anywhere from 50% to 100% of your employee’s monthly premium. Be sure to choose a plan that fits your business’s budget.

Redirect Health provides affordability, first and foremost, with affordable monthly payments and low deductibles while offering our members access to quality care. We combine our expertise in healthcare and the use of the latest technology to navigate the constantly changing healthcare landscape and keep costs low.

4. Review Deductibles, Out-of-Pocket Expenses, and Copayments

In addition to a monthly premium, you must also consider the other costs that come with a health plan. Every health plan is different, but there are a few common expenses you can expect. These include the deductible, out-of-pocket expenses, and copayments.

A deductible is the price that a member is expected to pay before their health plan begins to pay for coverage. The cost of the deductible often depends on the costs of the monthly premium and other costs. For example, a higher monthly premium typically leads to a lower deductible and vice-versa. The deductible often ranges from $0 to $7,000.

Out-of-pocket expenses are the medical costs you have to pay out of pocket as specified by your plan provider. Most plans have an out-of-pocket maximum, or an amount that indicates when you are no longer required to contribute toward your health expenses. After you reach this maximum, your health plan provider will cover any further medical expenses.

Copayments, or copays, are the costs you pay for your plan out of pocket during each medical provider or service visit. The copayment is the amount you are responsible for as a member, while the health plan provider will generally cover the rest of the expenses for the service. You can usually expect to pay a copayment in instances like:

Visiting a primary care provider
Visiting a specialist
Receiving medical imaging
Picking up a prescription

Your copay amounts for various services are predetermined by your health plan. These amounts can usually range anywhere from $0 to $200. Your copays do not count toward your deductible.

At Redirect Health, we know it can be challenging to navigate the various costs involved with health insurance. We strive to simplify healthcare by offering low-cost care for members. With appointment preparation and pre-authorization, you enjoy no-cost primary care along with a multitude of other great benefits.

5. Explore Available Options

Health insurance is a complex field, and there are many different types of plans that providers offer, influencing the kind of coverage you receive. When searching through health insurance plans, you will most likely come across these two types of plans—Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs).

HMOs – HMO plans usually offer coverage with lower monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs. However, HMOs also require you to stay in-network and require referrals to see specialists, offering less flexibility.
PPOs – PPOs typically have higher monthly premiums, but they give you more flexibility by allowing you to visit in- and out-of-network providers without needing a referral.

These two types of plans are the most common you will come across as you search, but there are many other types of plans as well that may work better for different lifestyles. Other plan coverage options include:

HSAs – HSA-qualified plans are a type of PPO plan that can be used with a health savings account (HSA). These accounts allow patients to use pre-tax income for future medical expenses. These plans will enable you to capitalize on multiple tax benefits, but they often have high deductibles.
Indemnity plans – Indemnity plans allow members to visit any doctor or hospital they want for covered medical events, and the insurance company will pay a pre-determined amount of the total charges. These plans allow members to receive easy cash payments for covered expenses, but they do not offer comprehensive coverage.

Determining the best plan option is another example of why it is important to understand your employees and their needs.

6. Analyze Coverage Extent and Benefits

The cost of your health insurance plan is one thing, but the value is another. As you search for the best small business coverage options, consider what health insurance services are covered.

Some important things to look for in a health insurance plan’s coverage include:

Preventive care
Specialist referrals
Medication coverage
Urgent care
Virtual care options
Hospital stays
Medical imaging
Mental health coverage
Additional products and services

Preventive care is especially important in a health insurance plan, as it helps you remain in good health and reduces the risk of developing a more severe and more expensive health concern. Preventive care includes care like:

Routine primary care visits
Immunizations
Mental health counseling
Chiropractor visits

In your search for a healthcare plan for your employees, aim for a plan that provides the most comprehensive coverage for the most value.

7. Assess Network Providers and Prescription Drug Benefits

Once you narrow down your health insurance plan options, network providers and prescription drug benefits are two additional factors where coverage varies widely depending on the plan.

A network is the list of providers that a plan will cover health costs for. Most plans do not cover providers outside of a given network. Finding healthcare will be a challenge if in-network providers are located far away from your employees or if the network of providers is limited.

You want to ensure your employees have access to the care they need with as few barriers as possible. Verifying that a plan provides an accessible network for employees is crucial for ensuring they embrace care when needed.

Redirect Health has a network of 700,000 providers nationwide. However, we also allow our members to remain with their current provider, offering more convenience and a more seamless transition. We strive to make it easy to access care through your preferred provider.

After understanding the network available to you and your employees, look into the prescription coverage. Health insurance plans will almost always provide a document called a formulary that highlights what medications are covered by insurance and to what degree. For example, you can explore the Redirect Health formulary to see the list of medications we cover and at what prices.

8. Consider Member Support

Finally, after you have determined all the coverage details for your ideal small business plan, you should consider the level of support that a plan provides. Navigating health insurance is not always easy, so it is important that there is a reliable support team willing to help. After all, a plan’s coverage does not matter if it is too difficult for members to actually access care when they need it.

Be sure to look at customer reviews to get an idea of member satisfaction. Although not a perfect translation, understanding the previous experiences of others will allow you to get an idea of what you can expect as a member.

With Redirect Health, accessing care is easy. Simply reach out to us through the Redirect Health Member App whenever you have a medical need, 24/7/365. We are also available via text or call.

From there, we will take all the necessary steps to offer you the care you need, connecting you with a medical provider, setting appointments, and then coordinating any payments or bills. We will even follow up with you after your appointment to ensure that the care you received fits your needs.

We provide a strong level of customer support to make accessing healthcare easy. Not only is it easy to find care, but we also guarantee a high level of support by providing friendly customer service in every interaction. When you contact Redirect Health, you can be confident that you will be connected with a real person ready to help, not just an automated machine.

Our members appreciate our passion to go the extra mile to provide friendly but comprehensive service, and our track record of satisfied customer reviews proves it.

Find the Best Small Business Health Insurance Plans with Redirect Health

Health insurance plans are important to employees, and finding the ideal coverage for your employees is crucial for ensuring everything from employee satisfaction to business productivity. At Redirect Health, we offer two types of plans for SMB owners and their employees—EverydayCARE and EverydayCARE Hospitalization. Both plans offer similar benefits and no-cost primary care to members, while the Hospitalization plan offers more comprehensive coverage for hospital and emergency care, supporting a range of needs.

From 24/7/365 support to low-cost, high-value care, there are plenty of reasons to turn to Redirect Health for health insurance plans for small businesses. We’ll provide you with the close care you need while keeping your plan affordable.

Explore our available plan options that provide affordable healthcare for SMB Owners. To learn more about our plans and what they can offer you, contact us today.