Employer List Bill

Q. I want to offer health insurance to my employees. Not all of them, just some of them. One agent tells me I can’t do that, another says I can. Which one is right?

A. There are several ways to accomplish this, and a few that will cause you problems.

You can offer coverage to anyone you choose, as long as you do not contribute toward the cost of the coverage. You can offer coverage to all those who have worked a year or longer and not offer to anyone else. You can offer coverage to management employees and not rank & file. You can offer coverage to all that are over 6 feet tall and not anyone else.

All of these offers are acceptable (though not necessarily fair), as long as you are not paying any portion of the premium.

Once you pay a portion of the premium the plan is considered a group plan, even if funded with individual policies. When that happens you may run afoul of non-discrimination laws.

Some times agents will tell you to pick & choose the employees you want to cover, then “bonus” them the premium. I suggest you read all the documents you are asked to sign when you set up a list bill arrangement. One of the statements asked you to attest that you are NOT paying any portion of the premium, or bonusing the premium in any fashion.

This entry was posted on August 21, 2006 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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