Group size
Two to fifty is small group in Tennessee. At fifty full-time equivalents the employer mandate enters the picture.
Employers
Group employee benefits
If you have employees, a benefits package is how you keep the good ones. If you have fewer than fifty full-time equivalents you are not required to offer one, which makes the decision strategic rather than compliance-driven.
What this actually is
Small-group medical in Tennessee is community rated, so your team's claims history does not set your renewal the way it once did. What does move the number is the age mix of the group, the county, the plan design you choose and how much of the premium you contribute.
Carriers apply participation and contribution requirements. Typically a minimum share of eligible employees must enrol and the employer must contribute a minimum share of the employee-only premium. Employees with other coverage can often be waived out of the participation count, which is where most borderline groups get over the line.
For some employers the better answer is not a group plan at all. An individual coverage HRA lets you give employees a defined, tax-advantaged contribution to buy their own Marketplace plan. We model both, and we do not push the one that pays better.
What we do on this line
- Census-based quoting across the carriers on our panel
- Participation and contribution modelling before you commit to a plan year
- Plan design options: copay plans, high-deductible plans with HSA, and tiered networks
- Employee education meetings, in person at your site or on video, in English and Spanish
- Dental, vision, life, disability and accident layered in where they earn their cost
- Renewal review ninety days ahead, with an alternative quoted every year
What moves the number
Price is not random. These are the levers, in the order they usually matter.
Age mix
Community rating still uses age. A young team and an older team price differently.
Contribution strategy
What you pay of employee-only premium drives take-up, and take-up drives whether the carrier will issue.
Waivers
Employees covered by a spouse's plan or by Medicare can usually be excluded from the participation calculation.
How the appointment runs
- 01
Census
Names off, ages and ZIP codes on. That is all we need for a first look.
- 02
Model
Three or four designs with your cost and the employee cost side by side.
- 03
Enrol
We run the meetings and handle the paperwork so your office manager does not have to.
- 04
Service
Claims questions, ID cards and adds or drops come to us, not to you.
Questions we get about group employee benefits
Two enrolling employees is generally the floor for small-group medical in Tennessee. Below that, individual Marketplace plans or an ICHRA are usually the route.
An individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement. You set a monthly amount per class of employee, they buy their own individual plan, and the reimbursement is tax-advantaged. It caps your cost and gives employees choice.
Employers with fewer than fifty full-time equivalent employees are not subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions. At fifty and above, the rules change and we bring in the detail.
Nothing. We are compensated by the carrier you place with, and the rates are filed, so using a broker does not raise your premium.
Often bought alongside
Self-employed health cover
Coverage built for 1099 income: variable earnings, quarterly taxes and no HR department to ask.
Read the detailDental, vision and hearing
Standalone cover for the three things medical plans mostly do not pay for.
Read the detailLife insurance
Term and permanent cover sized to the actual obligations you would leave behind.
Read the detailTwenty minutes usually settles it
Bring your prescriptions, the doctors you want to keep and a rough income number. We do the rest.
Our help is free to you. We are paid by the carrier you choose, and the premium is the same whether you use us or enrol on your own.