Employees In Transition Options
If you have employees nearing retirement age or you have recently had to make staff reductions, your employees may not understand the individual and family insurance options available to them. Explaining individual insurance plans can be time consuming and complicated for you, and may leave your employee with even more questions.
To help you help your employees, we have put together some information and resources to ease your staff through the transition to individual and family health plans.
Do you have staff leaving?
Individual & Family Health Plan Options
If you have staff leaving your organization, they may be faced with figuring out individual and family health insurance coverage. Maintaining an appropriate level of health coverage is important for these individuals to safeguard against major financial problems in the event of a health crisis.
Understanding the cost and coverage of COBRA, as well as exploring individual plans, will help your departing staff keep their family covered. If COBRA is too expensive for them, we offer a variety of individual and family health insurance options that can fit today's consumer budgets.
Coverage Considerations:
- A high deductible plan - allowing individual to pay only for coverage they actually need
- A comprehensive HMO plan for children - offering appropriate coverage for children who typically require more doctor visits
- Immediate coverage - enjoying the benefits of health insurance immediately — with any CareFirst individual and family plan — can be both financially and emotionally reassuring
Resources:
- Need to Buy Insurance - a tool that provides your employees with details on plan options and pricing
- Contact a CareFirst product specialist at 410-356-8000 in Baltimore or toll-free at 1-800-544-8703
- Ask Blue - a tool offering information and pricing on Blues Plans across the United States
Do you have staff retiring?
Coverage Options for Retirees
If you have staff nearing retirement age or recently retired, they may have many questions about the next step for their health coverage. Retirees need to find a plan with appropriate coverage for their health conditions, as well as their prescriptions.
- MediGap - health coverage that fills in the "gaps" to standard Medicare, helping pay for medical expenses not covered by Medicare.
- How Medicare and Medigap plans work?
- How to choose a Medigap policy
- Explore types of CareFirst MediGap plans and costs (no obligation to purchase)
- Medicare - a fee-for-service plan managed by the Federal Government
- Medi-CareFirst.com - provides plan information, costs and tips for effective plan management
- The government's medicare site - great resource to explore federal medicare information and policies
- Medicare and You - informational brochure created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Part D Plans - Medicare prescription drug coverage
- Details about Part D plans offered by Medi-CareFirst
Other Coverage Options - Individual & Family Health Plans Options
If you have employees who are interested in exploring options for individual health care coverage, whether for additional coverage or because they do not meet the Medicare requirements for coverage, we offer a large variety of individual and family health insurance plans.
- Need to Buy Insurance - a tool which can provide your employees with details on plan options and pricing
Highlights of COBRA Coverage
COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) gives workers and their families who lose their health benefits (due to voluntary/involuntary job loss, death/divorce of a spouse) the right to choose to continue their group health benefits for limited periods of time.
- Employees considering COBRA have 63 days, from qualifying event, to elect this coverage
- If an Employee selects COBRA, he/she has 45 days, from beginning COBRA, to pay the initial premium
- No medical underwriting is required when a employee selects COBRA
- COBRA coverage is typically allowed for up to 18 months (participants must follow rules to maintain coverage and there are exceptions to the rule)
- Frequently asked COBRA questions - COBRA information provided by the United States Department of Labor