Implementing a New Plan
Education first, then documentation, then enrollment, then the year that follows. We do all four, and we do not disappear after the paperwork is signed.
We make it easy and understandable
Choosing the plan design is the interesting part. Putting it in place is the part that decides whether it works, and it is the part employers most often end up doing alone.
We do not hand you a binder and leave. We educate the group, distribute what the law requires, enroll everyone, and then stay for the year that follows.
What we handle for you
To make this easy for an employer, we provide a range of services.
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Educate employees on their benefits, before enrollment rather than during it.
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Distribute the Summary of Benefits and Coverage to employees, as required by the ACA.
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Enroll employees.
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Handle questions and problems with claims and with billing.
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Meet annually to review plans and premiums.
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Answer questions from your employees through the year, not only at renewal.
What implementation actually looks like
Four stages, in this order. The order is the part that matters, because education has to come before anybody has to choose.
1. Educate first
We believe it is vital to educate employees so they can make good decisions. Most have never been taught how health insurance actually works, so they pick the plan that feels safest rather than the plan that serves them best.
We teach the group: basic insurance terms, how an HSA works, how to read an explanation of benefits, and how to evaluate the plans on the menu against their own circumstances.
2. Distribute and document
The Summary of Benefits and Coverage goes to every employee, as the ACA requires.
We make sure the documentation reaches people in a form they will actually open, and we keep the record of it.
3. Enroll the group
We enroll employees and dependents, set up payroll deductions where they apply, and get the HSA accounts opened for the people who choose the default plan.
An account that never gets opened is the most common way this design quietly fails, so we follow it through.
4. Stay for the year after
We handle claims questions and billing problems as they come up, and we answer employee questions all year rather than only at renewal.
Then we meet annually to review plans and premiums before the renewal lands, not after.
A word about your renewal date
A large share of small group plans now renew in the last quarter of the year. That is a lasting side effect of employers moving their renewal to December 1, 2013 in order to delay the plan changes that began in 2014. It is also when every individual plan renews, and when Medicare renews.
The unintended consequence is that agents have every renewal landing inside the same two or three months, which is the worst possible time to properly educate a group of employees. Employers are encouraged to adjust the renewal date if it makes sense to.
Changing it is simple: you request a new date from the insurance company. Carriers generally welcome the request, because they are overwhelmed at December 1 as well.
One more thing worth knowing
Since January 1, 2026, any Bronze or Catastrophic plan sold on the marketplace can be used to fund a health savings account. That widens the set of plans an HSA strategy can be built on, and it is worth checking against whatever you were told in an earlier year.
If an employee is approaching Medicare, tell them to call us before they file. Enrolling in Medicare ends HSA contributions, and Part A can be backdated up to six months, which can turn contributions they already made into excess contributions.
Ready to put a new plan in place?
Tell us your renewal date and we will work backward from it, so your employees are taught before they have to choose.