Benefits Buzz
Posted June 6th, 2018 in Employers, Producers, Individuals
As a part of Flex’s ongoing 30th anniversary celebration, we’d like to introduce you to some of our staff whose hard work and dedication has helped us to reach this important milestone.
Meet Larry
Larry Cassman is the Sales Manager for Individual and Medicare Sales. He has worked in the insurance industry for 18 years and at Flex for 11. Prior to that, Larry was a Stock Options Floor Trader at the Chicago Board of Exchange.
Posted June 5th, 2018 in Producers, Individuals
We all know health insurance has an expensive price tag. Even plans with high deductibles and/or small provider networks can come with costly premiums. And for people who don’t have an employer chipping in for coverage, or for people who don’t qualify for premium assistance on the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace, those premiums can be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Enter Packaged Health Insurance
This month’s Ask the Expert question comes from Jan in Alabama. Jan asks:
Is it mandatory that each employee meet with the insurance agent to elect or waive benefits offered through a Cafeteria Plan?
It is definitely not mandatory that each employee meet with the insurance agent in order to elect or waive coverage in the plan. There are, however, some best practices that employers can put in place when it comes to enrollment in the plan.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released Revenue Procedure 2018-34 which includes details about the affordability percentage related to the Employer Mandate for the upcoming year. In 2019, coverage will be considered affordable if the employee’s share of the premium for self-only coverage is no more than 9.86% of their household income. As most employers don’t know the household income of their employees, three alternative safe harbor methods may be used:
Posted May 24th, 2018 in Employers, Producers, Individuals
Why employees should max out their HSA contributions
Most people don’t think about an HSA as a savings account. Instead, they think of it as an account used to set aside money, tax-free, to pay for healthcare expenses. While this is true, the reality is an HSA is much more than a bank account. It’s a long-term savings vehicle.
Posted May 22nd, 2018 in Employers, Producers, Individuals
On May 10th, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Revenue Procedure 2018-30 which includes inflation adjustments to qualified high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and Health Savings Account (HSA) contribution limits.
