An Administrative Services Only (ASO) plan is an alternative way for employers to fund their employee group benefit plans. It is an arrangement in which a company funds its own employee benefit plan. For example, a company may hire an ASO carrier to evaluate and process claims under its employee health and dental plan while maintaining the responsibility to pay the claims itself.

If you are against the traditional insurance model, you may decide to self-insure your employees. In some situations, this structure may be in your best interest. Through this method of self-insuring:
– your employees can still submit claims through a drug card and maintain privacy.
– You can treat all of the employees equally without discriminating.
– And this can cover the catastrophic events as well. including life, disability and critical illness insurance with stop-loss coverage on drugs.

An ASO carrier will be able to design a plan that clearly dictates what is and isn’t covered.

A great broker will be able to examine the different solutions available and make a recommendation based on your unique situation. Ask your broker if they have considered the different solutions available and how they came to the conclusion that your design was the most suitable option for you.

Healthcare Spending Accounts (HCSA)

A group Healthcare Spending Account (HCSA) allows you to provide a simple benefit plan to your employees. An HCSA allows you to take full control over your contributions rather than waiting for a renewal to find out what you’ll have to pay next year. You can determine exactly how much you’d like to contribute for each set of employees. A healthcare spending account is a pre-determined amount of money provided to employees at the beginning of each benefit year.

Your contributions can be used for medical expenses such as drugs/vision/dental etc. Your employees will have the freedom to decide how the contributions are spent. The maximum the employees will be able to claim is entirely based on the amount remaining in the HCSA.

A regular insurance plan may charge you differently if you are single, couple, family, or waived. With an HCSA, you can provide the same benefit to each employee regardless of their marital status allowing you to treat everyone equally.