Healthcare Considerations for Landscape Contractors (part 1 of 3)

Written by Kevin Wood

Tuesday, March 12, 2019 04:00 AM

As almost everyone has experienced in recent years, the cost of healthcare and health insurance continues to rise. Whether buying coverage for yourself and your family or as an employer trying to offer your employees benefit options, you are probably feeling the pinch of expensive health insurance costs. This week, we will look at some fundamentals that may help you understand your health insurance better. In future articles, we will offer some insights on why the cost of care continues to raise and what you may be able to do about the raising costs, as well as how to use health insurance and benefits as a competitive advantage for your business!

Let’s look at the two most common types of carrier networks and how insurance plans are constructed. Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) provide care only at their facilities and Preferred Provider Organizations allow for any participating doctors to be included in the network of care, offering more options.

Your plan is built with a deductible amount that you are responsible for before your insurance starts paying. Copays count toward your out of pocket max, but not toward your deductible. After you hit your deductible, you will have a coinsurance split where you pay a percentage, and your insurance pays the remainder of the bill. A common coinsurance is 20% liability to the consumer and 80% to the insurance company. This coinsurance split continues until you meet your out of pocket max, at which point insurance pays 100% of the bill. For a useful list of heathcare terms, please visit https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/.

In the next issue of Colorado Green NOW: a discussion on the costs of healthcare and what you can do about it.

Kevin Wood is a Benefits Consultant with Quandary Insurance.

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