Ohio Group Health & Employee Benefits, shopped for you.

Health coverage is the benefit your team notices most. It's also the easiest one to get wrong.

There are dozens of plan types, a long list of carriers and a lot of moving parts: deductibles, coinsurance, networks, waiting periods and exclusions. Many group plans have also shifted toward high-deductible, HSA-compatible designs and away from traditional HMO and PPO plans. That can be a smart move or a painful one, depending on your people. A wrong choice can be hard to undo until the next renewal, and your whole team lives with it until then.

Our job is to make that simpler. Some employers want the most cost-effective plan they can find. Others want a benefit-rich plan that helps them hire and keep good people. Most want a sensible balance. We're an independent agency that represents multiple insurance companies, so we compare options across several carriers and explain the trade-offs in plain English.

This page covers the main paths: small-group health for employers, level-funded plans, MEWAs, association plans through major carriers, individual and family health, and dental, vision, life and disability. It's general information, not tax or legal advice.

Many of our benefits clients started with us on something else entirely. One longtime client, who insures a home, cars and rental properties with us, summed it up in a testimonial: they wanted an agency that could keep up as their needs grew, and one that's easy to reach with a question or a claim. That's the same approach we bring to benefits.

Level-funded plans, in plain English.

A level-funded plan sits between a traditional fully insured plan and a fully self-funded one. You pay a steady monthly amount, and that payment is split three ways.

• A claims fund that pays your employees' expected medical claims.
• Administration, which covers processing claims and running the plan.
• Stop-loss protection, which steps in if claims run higher than expected, so a rough year doesn't land entirely on the business.

Why employers look at it

The monthly cost stays level for the plan year, which makes budgeting easier. If your team has a lighter claims year, some plans may return part of the unused claims money or credit it toward the next year, depending on the plan. Employers with a relatively healthy group sometimes find level-funding worth comparing against their fully insured renewal.

What to watch

Level-funded plans are usually underwritten, so carriers look at your group before they quote. Refund and renewal terms differ from plan to plan, and so do networks. Read how the plan handles a bad year, not just a good one. We'll lay those terms out next to your current plan so you can see the real difference.

MEWAs: strength in numbers for smaller employers.

A multiple employer welfare arrangement (MEWA) lets separate employers pool together to offer health and welfare benefits. Members are often in the same trade or association. The goal is to give smaller employers some of the economies of scale a large group would have.

How it works

Each participating employer contributes to the plan, typically based on how many employees it covers and the expected cost of covering each one. Arrangements can range from a handful of employers to a large group. Plan options vary. Some focus on in-network care, others allow out-of-network care, and many lean toward consumer-driven designs.

What to check

Membership rules, eligibility, plan designs and how the arrangement is funded all vary. Before you join, it's worth understanding who runs it, what happens at renewal and what happens if you leave. We'll help you weigh a MEWA against your other options, then help you decide if it's a fit.

Employer plans through major health carriers.

Some business groups, such as chambers of commerce, partner with a major health carrier to offer a pooled plan for small employers and, in some cases, sole proprietors. These plans are often self-funded, with the carrier's stop-loss coverage behind the pool.

Plans like these may offer steady, predictable monthly premiums, a range of plan designs, access to a large PPO network and prescription drug list, wellness programs and options for vision, life and disability. Some also cover claims that come in after the plan ends. What's offered, who can join and how pricing works vary by arrangement and change over time.

We'll tell you which arrangements are open to your business today and compare them with the other options on this page. Ask us before you assume your business does or doesn't qualify.