Guardian Life, Humana Introduce New Multiyear Health Insurance Plans Designed To Make Premiums More Predictable For Small Businesses

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 10 Oct 2007 - 7:00 PST

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Guardian Life and Humana are introducing multiyear health insurance plans for small and medium-sized businesses that aim to provide employers with more predictable premiums from year to year, the Wall Street Journal reports. Both companies' plans are meant to appeal to employers that have been "struggling with double-digit premium increases" in recent years, according to the Journal.

Guardian's "Premium Protect" plan will be released within the next few weeks in five states and Washington, D.C., for companies with 51 to 150 employees. Under the two-year plan, employers "lock in" premium rate increases by paying an up-front fee of 3% to 4% to guarantee that premiums in the second year will increase by 0%, 6% or 9%. However, employee copayments and deductibles can be increased at any time if costs exceed expectations. Employee copays during the second year could increase by as much as $15, while deductibles could increase by $50 to $1,000 for in-network physician visits and hospital stays and by $500 to $1,000 for out-of-network treatment.

Humana's "No Worry" plan -- released in February in 17 states for companies with 51 to 99 workers -- caps annual rate increases at 6%. Employers must submit 75% of their workers' phone numbers and e-mail addresses to receive the rate cap guarantee and at least 30% of workers must fill out a health risk assessment survey. If employers get 90% of workers to complete health risk assessments, employers can receive a guarantee that annual premium increases will not exceed 4.5%. Employers who cancel the plan before three years will be charged a $25,000 penalty. Under some of the Humana plans, employees' deductibles can increase from $500 to $2,500 by the third year (McQueen, Wall Street Journal, 10/9).

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