Insurance & Benefits

Save With Chamber Health Plan

By Paul Breslau, Breslau Insurance & Benefits Inc.

The Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce is introducing a new group health insurance plan for members. The turnkey program will result in significant dollar savings for many business and nonprofit members that have 10 or more employees, according to Rick Kidder, chamber president. Designed by the Chamber Benefit Administration, the program is immediately available.

Quality Proven Concepts
High-deductible health plans are proven to significantly reduce premium dollar expenditures. “Everyone has deductibles on auto and home insurance because insuring first dollar is prohibitively expensive,” says Amy Shuckhart of Amalyn Consulting. “It is the same for an employer and their group health insurance. Premiums can be up to 50 percent less going from a $500 or $1,000 deductible to a $5,000 or greater deductible.”
Just like everyone self-insures the first dollars on auto and home, in this case the employer self-insures the underlying medical expenses. “However, with health insurance,” Shuckhart says, “Section 105 of the federal tax codes favors this process by allowing Health Reimbursement Accounts.”

With dollars that are tax deductible, the employer can custom design coverage for part of the underlying medical expenses. The employee then receives these benefits without tax obligation.

Savings, Savings, Savings
The savings are potentially dramatic and significant. Premium illustrations show the expected savings as well as the range of scenarios on every proposal. “Using industry-accepted assumed claim estimates, an accurate picture of the annual savings is provided,” says Mark Dennis of Chamber Benefit Administration. “Also provided is the best case as well as the worst case scenarios. The bottom line is a high probability that employers enjoy significant savings while employees maintain excellent health care coverage.”

Sustainable Program
The chamber plan is designed to be sustainable over time. This is accomplished by the ability to use several different companies for the insured portion of the plan including Aetna, Assurant, and Health Net. Each participating employer group is underwritten following fundamental principles. IIS Benefit Administrators is the third-party administrator that coordinates the claim processing and reporting in a highly automated and efficient manner. Any properly licensed health insurance agent who is a Scottsdale Area Chamber member can market the plan. The chamber receives a small marketing allowance for their promotion of the plan. All of these combine to make it sustainable over time.

Start Saving Now
Why continue to mail your exorbitant premiums to the health insurance company with little feedback on when and how the money is used? Please contact Rick Kidder or the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce to learn about how a free evaluation with illustrations will help you start savings now.

Paul Breslau is president of Breslau Insurance & Benefits Inc. He is a Registered Health Underwriter (RHU), Registered Employee Benefit Consultant (REBC), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), and future Chartered Advisor for Senior Living (CASL), Contact: 602-692-6832; Paul@HRaz.com. More: www.HRaz.com.