The Simple UnitedHealthcare Small Business Solution

Andy Capaloff

September 26, 2017

The Simple UnitedHealthcare Small Business Solution

“This post was sponsored by UnitedHealthcare. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Once in a while, we like to provide articles that are away from our usual niche, yet that we hope will be helpful to a number of readers. This sponsored post for UnitedHealthcare falls firmly into that category. The gist of this article is simple: “Here are the pain points for employers…here are the benefits of offering healthcare options to your employees…here is what UHC has created, and here are reasons why the UHC online shopping tool alleviates employer concerns.” If any of these things are of concern to you or any of your clients, please read on.

First, here’s my own little disclaimer. I’m not in HR, nor have I ever been. Same goes for healthcare. So this article is very much from a lay perspective.

Before getting into this in any depth, I should point out that these plans are designed for companies with 2-50 employees, and that the entire sign-up process only takes about 20 minutes.

Here’s Why You Should Consider Providing Healthcare

According to Monster.com’s survey, 32 percent of job applications rank a healthcare plan as the most important benefit. Yes, even more than vacation time, pay raises, other benefits, bonuses and retirement plans!

The article “Benefits and Salary are Not Enough: Trends in Employee Retention” from paychex.com discusses tangible and intangible reasons for employee retention. What is the first benefit they mention? No prizes for guessing it’s Healthcare!

So clearly, this ranks as a major pain point for employees and potential employees.

And as an employer possibly looking to attract and keep good talent, you can see the importance of offering Health Care as a benefit – even if you are a small enough company that the law doesn’t penalize you for not doing so.

What About The Benefits of Employers Providing Healthcare?

Some seem quite obvious! Employees with proper healthcare benefits are likely to be healthier and recover from illnesses faster. And seeing as it is the favorite healthcare benefit, you’re likely to retain your employees longer – presuming, of course, you provide an environment that is appreciated in other ways.

To briefly define ‘proper’ healthcare… It should be affordable. And of course, you also need to offer plans that provide decent coverage. There’s really no point in offering plans that nobody can afford, or that have such high deductibles that people can’t afford to get sick even when covered. Don’t simply offer a healthcare option to your employees just in order to so. You do also need to ensure the range of plans you offer is a good one. Failure to do that could make you appear cynical and will at the very least not achieve the desired result of attracting new employees.

Need I mention the financial benefits to employers – particularly small business employers – of retaining good employees? I’ll presume not, but will happily answer questions should anyone ask.

But Providing Healthcare is Expensive!

No sugar coating this one. Yes, it’s costly.

63% of businesses report health care is a major concern due to cost and coverage issues.

Source: The Business Journals SMB Insights, Businesses with 5-499 Employees. The question asked was: “Which of the following issues are you most concerned about? Please indicate your level concern for each as they relate to your business.”

And it can be frustrating to set up – especially as you’re unlikely to know much about doing it the first time around.

Employers identify choosing the right health plan as time-consuming and confusing

Source: Superstore Quant Report, 2015 National Accounts Client Scorecard Survey

To mitigate the expense, however, under certain circumstances, you will be eligible for a tax benefit. That is, if your company has:

25 or less full-time employees
Average annual wages are less than $50,000 a year
You pay at least half of employee premiums

And as already established, it is the most sought-after benefit.

UnitedHealthcare Plans For Small Business

Sponsored or not, we honestly would not write and post promoting one company, if we weren’t impressed with their offering. Over the years, I have been with UHC far more than any other company – whether through an employer offering or the Marketplace. So I’m very comfortable in suggesting this company to our readers.

Here’s what a couple of small company owners had to say about their experiences:

Do you want a healthcare website to be easy, and exceed your expectations of how long it might take?

Maybe having an advisor at hand who you can chat with immediately, is important to you?

To see how to use the UnitedHealthcare online tool to help provide healthcare for your employees, please look at this post.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Go to https://smallbusiness.uhc.com/
Select the benefits you want to offer
Enter the number of employees you want to cover (including yourself!)
Set the amount you want to pay – your employees simply pay the balance of the plan cost. And that will be lower or higher based upon their plan selection
At no additional cost to you, your employees can choose to add a Dental or Optical plan and/or life insurance
There will be no surprises! You’ve set the budget

When I ran a test of the site, I was given 27 plans to choose from.

If you offer your employees a choice of 6 or more plans, they will have access to an online selection tool that helps them choose the plan that is the best fit for them.

You’ll Love This Part!

Here’s one other really nice part of the process: You don’t have to give your personal details until you’re ready to check out. So go into the site and give it a test spin. You won’t get any emails if you leave without signing up.

In Closing

If you’re currently considering offering your employees a healthcare plan, we hope this has given you food for thought. Certainly, not everyone can do this. But for those on a sound enough financial footing that they can, we feel that UHC is particularly friendly to small businesses and worth at least a run through their site.

If you have any questions about UnitedHealthcare or healthcare for small businesses in general, please ask. As I mentioned above, I’m not an expert. But I’ll definitely do my best to answer. Or I’ll seek an expert if I can’t answer it myself. Just go easy on me, OK?

Blog disclaimer required by the FTC

The views expressed do not reflect those of UnitedHealthcare nor its affiliates. They are the personal opinions of the authors. While UnitedHealthcare has made every attempt to ensure accuracy, the information contained in these blogs may change and UnitedHealthcare assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, contrary interpretations of the subject matter or information herein or for any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. These blogs may connect to other websites maintained by third parties over whom UnitedHealthcare has no control. UnitedHealthcare makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information contained in those linked blogs or third party websites. Blogs are for general informational purposes only and not intended to be medical advice or a substitute for professional health care.

Featured image: Copyright: ‘https://www.123rf.com/profile_solerf‘ / 123RF Stock Photo

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Andy Capaloff

Andy Capaloff is the COO of Curatti. Prior to moving into the world of Content Marketing, Social Media Management and the day-to-day running of a Digital Marketing company, Andy spent over 3 decades in various aspects of IT. It is here that he honed his writing and technical skills, and his ability to ask uncommon questions.