What Are Multi-State Benefits?
The simple version is that multi-state benefits are benefits packages a company can provide to all their employees, even if their employees live in various states. This is often simpler than having a different plan for each state you have employees in.
However, the reality of it is much more complicated. The insurer of the plan must not only ensure their benefits package is uniform in each state, but also contain the benefits tagged as essential.
This includes ambulatory and emergency services, mental health care, pregnancy and newborn care, prescriptions and lab work services, preventative care, and more.
Also, if one of the states in question requires anything more, even if the other state or states don’t, it must be added to the plan. Therefore, multi-state benefits take a lot of time and research to put together.
Options For Multi-State Benefits
At ERB, we know there is more than one way to provide benefits for your scattered employees. The main ones are national plans, stipends, and HRAs.
National Group Health Plans – have an international provider giving a premade plan already able to span many states. This is simpler, easier for the company, and gives the employees better price options thanks to the number of them.
Health Insurance Stipends – is where employees are given a fixed stipend, which they use to purchase their own health insurance. This lets them pick whatever plan they want, but it also costs more, as they aren’t able to get deals on their plans and have to pay more taxes.
HRAs – are similar to stipends, with the employee being given the funds to buy their own insurance, but actually save money on taxes.
Other options aside from those main ones are Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRA), which reimburses employees tax-free for their individual health plan premiums and medical expenses, and Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (QSEHRA), which gives a fixed allowance specifically for smaller businesses with less than 50 employees.
Important Considerations Of Multi-State Benefits
Choosing the right benefits requires a bit of researching and strategizing. This is because healthcare in each state has its own price range, demographics, etc.
Therefore, when deciding what to do for employee benefits, you need to know how much healthcare costs in each state, the age of your employees, which does impact the healthcare options, and other factors.
This is why it’s much easier to use our services at ERB, as we know what all needs to be considered and can help find the right choice for your multi-state situation.
