With rising health care costs, more employers in Georgia are abandoning group health insurance plans and saving up to 15% in the process.
The introduction of Individual Coverage Health Care Reimbursement Agreements (ICHRA), a new type of health care reimbursement agreement that helps control employee health care costs and provides more flexibility, helps to this trend.
ICHRAs (pronounced IK-rahs) became available in January 2020 thanks to changes in IRS regulations that allow employers subject to the requirements of the Affordable Care Act to reimburse employees with non-taxable dollars for plans. of their choice. A recent study found that 15% of employers surveyed concerned about budget constraints intend to adopt ICHRAs in 2022 and beyond1.
The new tools and technologies that facilitate the transition to this new healthcare solution are a second major driver of this trend. Digital platforms like HRASimple reduce the administrative burden of managing a group health plan and help businesses run an ICHRA.
“We were spending more and more each year on group health insurance for our employees… and budgeting for this benefit was becoming more of a problem than a benefit,†says Julie Soekoro, CFO of Hamilton Health Care System in Dalton, Georgia. “HRASimple took the angst of annual renewal increases… and stabilized my budget… in addition to saving our organization over $ 7 million in 2021, which saved a lot of jobs during the pandemic. For our organization, it was a real win-win for everyone involved. “
