Before you know it, Open Enrollment Season will be upon us. November is the time for renewals and kissing bad healthcare options goodbye. There is so much to get your arms around when it comes to picking the right healthcare options for your team as an entrepreneur. Few entrepreneurs came into their businesses knowing all there was to know about small business health insurance in the first place. If you’ve signed a couple of health insurance contracts, you now know more about the industry than you’d like to. 

No matter what, Open Enrollment Season is a time to reflect, reevaluate, and make better decisions for next year. No healthcare option is entirely perfect; this we know. There will always be room for improvement with coverage and affordability. Set pie-in-the-sky dreaming aside for now. Is there anything you can do as of November that would improve either your healthcare coverage or premium costs? Let’s find out.

Not All Small Business Healthcare Options Are The Same 

If you need healthcare coverage for your small or medium-sized business, a simple Google search will reveal so many options you’ll be reading through the results until November 2020. We’ll take a look at the most attractive and apparent choices most entrepreneurs will make the first time around.

First of all, small group health plan coverage is only one thing: expensive. There’s no doubt about that. The reason is simple math; you aren’t paying enough as a group to offset the risk for the provider having to cover your group’s healthcare expenses. 

This is how insurance companies work. If you have 20,000 people paying their premiums this year and less than 100 of those people require significant healthcare coverage, it isn’t too hard to figure out who is making out in the deal here. 

Cheap coverage is what it is. It also is not going to benefit you very much in the end. Probably the best thing you’ll ever learn in a Business Calculus class is the fact that inexpensive plans, paid overtime, will cost you the most money. No one gets into business to save their customers money. Never. Now that we have swallowed that bitter pill, we can look at cheap healthcare options with a lot more clarity. 

You’ll get cheap benefits with little coverage, high deductibles, and plenty of co-pays. That is now what your hardworking employees are interested in for healthcare options. They probably aren’t yours either. 

Of course, there are better plans, but you’ll pay for them. If you’ve been trying to find a small business healthcare plan that keeps your premiums the way they are with better coverage, you’ve probably been disappointed. 

No PEO Is One-Size-Fits-All Either 

Spoiler Alert: Not all PEOs are the same either. They may tell you that, but the reality is they have plenty to offer the right company, not everyone. There are hundreds and hundreds of PEOs that are capable of doing business with your business. Which ones are the ones you should be considering? That’s the tricky part. Combing the Internet for information on which ones would be the right ones for you is going to prove to be an arduous process. 

If you are currently working with a PEO and are not happy with it, the tendency is to throw the whole idea of a PEO right out the window. That could be your biggest mistake in finding the right healthcare options. There are a few reasons why a company may not be happy with their PEO contract. It doesn’t always mean you have to fire your PEO either. Sometimes you can renegotiate your current PEO contract and get the things you need to keep you and your employees happy. 

A PEO Broker Is The Navigation Systems PEO Shoppers Need

If you are looking for better healthcare options or are trying to find the right PEO for your company, a PEO broker is the best way to get the right information you need to make an informed decision. A PEO Broker like PEO Spectrum will get to know your business needs and goals so they can recommend a few out of the hundreds of PEOs for you to consider. For PEO customers looking to switch PEOs or renegotiate what they have with a PEO already, a PEO broker will be very instrumental in getting the kind of PEO contract you had in mind. 

Just like your friendly neighborhood insurance agent, a PEO broker is free for PEO customers to use. Don’t let Open Enrollment Season be a source of anxiety this year. Work with a PEO broker to help you find the right healthcare options for your small business and feel good about your healthcare coverage again.  

If you’d like to find out more about how PEOs can help you provide great benefits and payroll management at less than you are paying now, contact us today for a free consultation.

Mary Beth Crowley

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