Which Benefits Should You Offer?

There are many health benefits that you may consider offering to employees, including:

• health insurance, including:
  • health maintenance organizations (HMOs)
  • preferred provider organizations (PPOs)
  • traditional fee-for-service indemnity insurance
  • major medical policies
• dental care insurance
• vision care insurance
• medical savings accounts

In addition to choosing a type of plan, you'll need to make some other decisions, as well, including:

• which services your plan will cover (in some cases, there are federal and state mandates and special rules for small businesses you should be aware of)
• which employees your plan will cover (you may choose to exclude part-timers, for instance)
• what waiting period and eligibility requirements new employees will have
• how health plan portability requirements affect you

Health care reform. The enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and related legislation institutes benefit and coverage mandates. To assist small employers with the decisions they have to make regarding insurance choices, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers a customized web tool to search for health care options.