Since the introduction of the Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) in 2020, Dalton-based health benefits management company HRASimple has “made an impact” in the community and across Georgia when it comes to local small businesses, CEO says. Mark said. mixer.
ICHRA is a company-paid health benefit that was created under regulations enacted at the federal level in 2019 to reimburse employees for their medical expenses.
Mr. Mixer said that through HRASimple, the company quickly became one of the first companies to bring ICHRA to business by offering affordable health benefits, and continues to do so through active partnerships. said that it was
Mr. Mixer said that through HRASimple, the company quickly became one of the first companies to bring ICHRA to business by offering affordable health benefits, and continues to do so through active partnerships. said that it was
Mixer also chairs the Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization comprised of major health care benefit providers and administrators from across the United States.
He said that after the introduction of ICHRA, SMEs were given options that were not available to them before.
“Instead of providing a clear health insurance benefit where an employer goes and chooses a plan and offers it to the employee, the employer hands the money to the employee, and the employee receives that money. Now you have the option to retire, buy your own individual plan,” Mixer said. “So this was a new tool that had the benefit of being an option for employers.”
After “building the infrastructure” for local companies to manage ICHRA, Mixer quickly realized that the tool “was something we could sell nationwide,” making it a product line and using it for the past four years. He said that he has carried out the . ”
He said that with the introduction of ICHRA, employers now have more options to consider when offering health insurance benefits to their employees.
“In short, what HRASimple does is help administrators purchase plans, enroll employees in the plan, manage monthly contributions that the employer pays on their behalf, and reimburse qualified medical expenses. That means we will,” Mixer said.
Mixer said small employers have long chosen to not be able to afford insurance due to rising prices, but the Affordable Care Act of 2014 “really accelerated these costs. “It has become unbearable for many small employers.”
“So they started relinquishing their ability to pay for or fund health insurance for their employees,” he says. “And for the first time, employers have the option to consider either self-funding, which many small employers cannot do, or ICHRA, which pays a set amount determined by the employer. So this is just another tool for employers who want to offer health insurance to their employees.”
Mixer said that while ICHRA is not insurance, it is an innovation that provides comprehensive protection to employees and gives them the freedom to choose a plan that fits their individual needs.
Mixer said that for startups that have never offered benefits before, HRASimple and its ICHRA management provide a way to get into benefits provision without taking on significant financial risk.
“They don't have the restrictions that many insurance companies require,” he said. “In many cases, you have to pay at least half of the premiums, and then at least 70% or 80% of the company's employees have to participate. All of those barriers have gone away, and now employers Now we can offer a fixed amount of money to each employee, so they can decide if it's worth it to them. ”
Mixer said the importance and impact of providing ICHRA to local businesses are both significant.
“In Georgia alone, the fully insured health insurance market has essentially disappeared,” he said. “Of the 10 million people living in Georgia, I would say fewer than 200,000 are insured through fully insured small group plans. Many of them are forgoing fully insured products and paying fixed costs. I have moved to a Level Reserved Plan which is a self-funded plan that comes with it.'' If you don't do that every month, you'll end up going the ICHRA route. ”
Mixer said that over the past four years, HRASimple has doubled the size of employers through its ICHRA operations each year, “many of which are smaller employers who are taking advantage of this opportunity.” .
However, Mixer says there are always good and bad aspects to any new implementation or program.
“I don't want to announce that this is a silver bullet that will solve everyone's problems,” he said. “Every week we encounter employers who consider this as an option but choose it's not the best choice for them. And that's the beauty of it: They didn't have an option before. But now I have it, and it fits, it fits very well.”
Mixer said he spends a lot of time explaining to local employers how the process works.
“And once the employer says, 'Okay, this is interesting,' we take the next step,” he said. “But it happens probably one out of three times, and the rest are, 'Okay, at least I heard this is an option, I've considered it, and maybe not this year, maybe next year.' Come back in a year and have the same conversation again.”
Because ICHRA is still a fairly new innovation, Mixer said small employers will be the primary early adopters.
“I predict that this will probably continue for the next 10 years,” he said. “But sometimes large employers pull the trigger on some of their employees or offer it to some of their employees.When 401(k)s were first introduced, defined benefit It took decades to replace the traditional model, which is a program, and that's exactly what happens here, growing slowly in small steps at first, and then maybe eight or nine years from now super fast. I predict that more and more employers will jump on the bandwagon.”
For more information about HRASimple and its health benefits tools, please visit www.hrasimple.com.
