Group Health Insurance Quotes

Searching for group health insurance quotes for your small business? We have them! Get instant health quotes from every top health insurance company in NY.

Small business owners have seen dramatic increases in the cost of providing group health insurance benefits to their employees. Over the past 20 years, the rates for group health insurance in New York rates have increased more than 130%. Group health insurance has become the second largest expense for the small business owner after their payroll.

Because premiums for group health insurance in NY and across the United States continue to go up, many small business owners have been forced to reduce the benefits offered to employees under their group health plans.

Many companies are even requiring their employees to pay a higher share of the monthly premium or requiring them to pay 100% of their dependent premiums. The number of small business owners that offer health insurance to their employees has drastically decreased over the last 10 years as reported by Benefits Selling Magazine.

Does My Company Qualify for Group Health Insurance?

Small Group Employer

In New York, if you employ 2 to 100 employees, you are considered a small group employer. If you have less than 30 full time employees, The Affordable Care Act (ACA), does not require you to offer health insurance – but you might want to anyway because a company health plan attracts and retains quality employees.

If you have more than 50 full time employees, you are required by ACA to provide health insurance. There are steep penalties for not doing so. For more info regarding this, check out our free resource, the ACA Compliance Center.

Health plans in New York are known as “community rated” which means, every employee pays the same rate regardless of their age or gender.

This makes New York a unique state for group health insurance because in most other states, health rates are based on the age and gender of your employees  (if you have older workers, this could skew rates higher).

Large Group Employer

Also referred to as the “large group market” (100+ employees) large and mid-size companies, can offer more plan choices than those offered to small groups.

Each health insurance company may have their own terms and requirements for the number of employees required to fall into large size group health insurance, but large sized classification is usually offered to companies with more than 100 employees.

A larger selection of health plans are also available and based on claim history or experience in your industry. This often results in better plan designs and lower rates for large groups.

How Much Does Group Health Insurance Cost?

Well that depends if you are small company employer or a large company employer.

Small Employer: according to The Kaiser Family Foundation, the cost of group health insurance for a single person is, $6900 per year. For a family the cost is $19,616 per year.

Large Employer: Health insurance costs will vary. Premiums are based on the location of your company, industry, number of employees, gender and residential zip codes.

Underwriting factors could impact the cost as well. For instance; if your employees have high medical claims, your cost per employee could be higher. However, in many cases, large employer rates are lower than small employer rates.

NY Small Business Health Insurance Plans

Oxford Health insurance

Oxford is owned by UnitedHealthCare Company and is one of the largest healthcare providers in the United States. Oxford health plans are National plans and medical care is available anywhere in the Country by facilities that accept the UnitedHealthCare Network

In New York, Oxford offer EPO, PPO and HSA plans. There are 3 networks to choose from: The Freedom Network which is their largest network and accepted by most doctors and hospitals. The Liberty Network with about 20% than the Freedom Network and the Metro Network and is 25% smaller than the Liberty Network.

Freedom and Liberty plans give your employees national coverage through the UnitedHealthcare Choice Plus network. Metro plans are much cheaper than Freedom and Liberty and are designed for businesses located in New York City and the Boroughs.

Empire Blue Cross insurance

Empire is owned by Anthem Blue Cross and is the largest healthcare provider in the Country. In New York, Empire offers their largest EPO and PPO Network plans and their slightly smaller networks called Blue Access and Connection Networks. All plans do not require referrals and can be used Nationally.
Empire Blue Cross plans are available for businesses located in New York City, Long Island, Mid-Hudson and Albany Regions.

Cigna Health Plans

Cigna specializes in the mid to large size businesses with at least 51 or more employees. They offer EPO’s, Open Access Plans, PPO plans, HMO’s and HSA Plans.

An Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) is a health plan that offers a large, national network of doctors and hospitals for you to choose from. No referrals are required however, if you choose out-of-network health care providers, it usually will not be covered.

Open Access Plus (OAP) is a type of health insurance plan or health benefits plan that allows you to choose your health care providers. You may have to pay a deductible (annual amount) before the plan begins to pay for covered health care costs. Once you meet your deductible, you pay a copay or coinsurance.

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) is a health plan that allows you to go out-of-network and still have coverage for medical benefits. The Cigna PPO offers a large network of National participating providers so you have a range of doctors and hospitals to choose from

The Cigna HMO plan requires you to select an in-network primary care provider (PCP) for yourself and your covered dependents. Referrals are required to see a specialist except for OB/GYN services. Out-of-network care is not covered with the exception of an emergency.

An HSA is qualified High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) which typically has lower premiums but higher deductibles. Medical services are not covered until you meet your deductible. Tax deductible contributions can be made to your Health Savings Account by you and/or your employer up to a certain yearly limit set by the IRS guidelines.

HealthFirst Insurance Plans

HealthFirst offers Pro Plus EPO health plans and dental coverage for both adults and for children under the age of 19. Pro EPO plans only offer health insurance and dental coverage for children under the age of 19. Their health plans are in-network coverage and do not require referrals from your Primary Care Provider

Small businesses located in New York City, Nassau and Suffolk Counties can save up to 30% on health premiums compared to Oxford and Empire. HealthFirst small business plans are the lowest cost fully insured health plans for 2021 & 2022.

EmblemHealth Insurance Plans

Emblem offers HMO, EPO and PPO plans through 3 networks: Prime, Select Care and Millennium. Prime is available for businesses locate in New York City, Long Island, Westchester, and Rockland Counties. Emblem PPO plans are part of the Prime network and include National coverage using the FirstHealth network

The Select Care and Millennium networks are for the Metro New York City area only. The Select Care plans do not include major hospital such as: Sloan, NYU, the L.I. Health Network, Westchester Medical or Maimonides. The Millennium plans are their smallest network with limited hospital and doctor participation but cost significantly less than Prime and Select Care.

Professional Employer Organizations or “PEO’s”

A Professional Employer Organization or PEO is a firm that partners with companies to provide comprehensive Human Resources (HR) services. These services include employee benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation, recruiting, risk/safety management, employee training/development and most importantly, compliance to state and Federal laws. In other words, PEO’s use the buying power of thousands of customers to give small businesses access to big-business benefits.”

Our PEO partners typically offer access to insurance companies such as, Aetna, Empire, Oxford, and United HealthCare as their insurance providers. Small business owners with more than 5 employees can save up to 40% on health care premiums by purchasing it through a PEO.

We work with several PEO providers because not one company is a good fit for everyone. PEO companies we represent are:

Insperity – United HealthCare, 3 employees or more
Trinet – Aetna, Empire or UHC, 5 employees or more
JustWorks – Aetna, 6 employees or more
Prestige – Oxford or Emblem, 6 employees or more
Extensis – Aetna, 10 employees or more enrolled in health plan

HealthPlansNY is Your Small Business Partner

We are a full service insurance agency which was formed by a partnership between Behr Insurance and The Gerlitz Group. We are two independent agents that have joined forces to help small business owners to rein in out-of-control insurance and supplemental benefits costs.

With 40+ years’ combined small-business insurance experience, HealthPlansNY.com serves clients across the entire tri-state area – NY, NJ and CT.

How can we help you?

Let’s face it: You can’t afford to watch your insurance rates balloon every year. HealthPlansNY has developed unique strategies to reduce small businesses’ health-insurance costs. We represent all the major carriers – from Aetna, Blue Cross, Emblem, Oxford and many more.

Contact us at 800-234-3702 for questions or if you need help.