Stop Auto-Renewing: Why Now is the Time to Review Your Company's Health Insurance

The Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) for health plans is here, making the next few months the most critical time of year for insurance professionals and for your business. Don't wait until it's too late—now is the perfect time to review your employee health insurance offerings.

In this essential episode, host Doug Jenkins with the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce sits down with Grace George from Hitchings Insurance Agency to break down everything local businesses need to know.

What you'll learn:

• Key Dates and Deadlines: We cover when the AEP begins for Medicare (October 15th) and the Marketplace (November 1st) and why these dates matter for your company.
• The Second Largest Expense: Grace highlights why health insurance is typically a company's second-largest expense next to payroll and how to ensure your plan is competitive, both in coverage and cost.
• A Better Benefits Strategy: Learn why simply "auto-renewing" your existing plan is a costly mistake and get expert advice on finding a better plan for your employees and your bottom line.
• The Power of the Chamber Plan: We discuss the benefits of the SOCA MEWA plan available to Chamber members, including strong negotiation power, access to the wide Anthem network, and the appeal of Health Savings Account (HSA) options for employee retention.
• Local Support: Discover how working with a local agent means getting quick answers and personalized help, without navigating a complex 1-800 number call tree.

 To discuss your business's insurance options, contact Grace George at Hitchings Insurance at 419-423-9145 or info@hitchingsinsurance.com. 

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Transcript

0:00:04 - (Doug Jenkins): Hello, everyone, and welcome to Chamber Amplified, brought to you by the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. I'm your host, Doug Jenkins. Are you looking for ways to grow your business, maybe navigate new challenges or just stay in the loop on what's happening right here in our community? Well, you're in the right place. Every week on Chamber Amplified, we're talking about the issues that matter most to you. Whether that's attracting great talent, maybe it's marketing your business better spending, solving it issues really can be anything.

0:00:31 - (Doug Jenkins): You can get ready for tips and updates that you need to succeed. Each week here on Chamber Amplify. Do you know any health insurance professionals in your life? If you do, say goodbye to them for the next three months. It's like it's tax season for them. We're gonna find out why the next three months are the most critical time of the year for insurance professionals and how that applies to you. Mostly, we'll be talking about key enrollment dates that you need to know, breaking down when the annual enrollment period for Medicare and the Marketplace begins and what actions you need to take and and most importantly, why. Now is a very good time to review your current insurance plan for your business.

0:01:06 - (Doug Jenkins): We're gonna get expert advice on what local businesses should be looking for in the existing insurance plans they already have and how they can find a better fit for the coming year. Could be through a plan that we offer through the Chamber, which we'll highlight. Grace George from Hitchings Insurance Agency is my guest. She'll walk us through all of that. Before we get into it though, make sure that you stop and rate and review the show if you have the chance on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. It really does help spread the word.

0:01:31 - (Doug Jenkins): Now let's get into it. So you're going into the time of year for you where you disappear for like three months because it's quite busy when it comes to insurance. Tell us what happens this time of year.

0:01:43 - (Grace George): Yeah, so I kind of compare it. It's the equivalent of tax season. For CPAs, it's the annual enrollment period. So that basically opens up all things individual and Medicare health insurance to allow people to switch plans for the 2026 plan year. So we get next year's plans available to us. For Medicare that begins October 15th. For Marketplace that begins November 1st. And basically it's just hang on until you make it.

0:02:19 - (Doug Jenkins): So good times for you, but also a good time for our members and for area businesses to really look at what their existing insurance plan is, what changes might be going into effect for that and seeing if maybe there are better plans out there for them. This is an area where you walk a lot of people through this time of year. What are the big questions that you hear from businesses when they start to look over this information?

0:02:45 - (Grace George): So for businesses, a lot of it comes down to the cost of plans. So health insurance, from my knowledge, I have been told that health insurance is typically the second largest expense that a company can have next to payroll. So it's expensive, it's not cheap, and no one ever said it was, especially at this point in time. But making sure that they still have not only a good covering plan, but also a plan that's competitive cost wise.

0:03:23 - (Grace George): So that could look like negotiating renewals for businesses, which is something that most health agents will do. It could also look like shopping the market and seeing what other options are out there.

0:03:38 - (Doug Jenkins): So a lot to be considered for a business getting into this. If you're maybe a new business, maybe you're looking to offer benefits for the first time, you can probably do that any time of year. Now is as good a time as any, I would imagine, for that.

0:03:53 - (Grace George): Yeah, yeah, you can do it any time of year. Businesses that have an existing policy, in my opinion, it's always ideal to try to match it up to their current existing policy. But I have switched plans mid year for people. It really, it's dependent on the business. This is as good of a time as any. We're still busy with, with our individual Medicare, but we have a lot of, a lot of companies that renew January 1st that we still do all of those services for.

0:04:25 - (Doug Jenkins): So now we'll talk a little bit about the. The program available to Chamber of Commerce members here in a moment. But one thing when we talk about the program is that it's really one. If you want health insurance for your employees, it's a good way to do it. But also it. You can look at it like it's an employee retention tool as well, because you were able to get a strongly negotiated rate for your insurance or for the health insurance that you would offer.

0:04:53 - (Doug Jenkins): And it's comparable to what a lot of larger companies would offer. You've worked with several Chamber of Commerce members in helping them get enrolled in our plan here. When you have conversations with them, is that the type of thing that you hear? What are their big concerns when they talk about the insurance program that's available to chamber members?

0:05:12 - (Grace George): Yeah, it is. So the employee retention is a huge part of it. It's a very attractive benefit that a lot of small businesses are not aware that they can even offer. Most people think about companies like Whirlpool or Cooper or Marathon when they think about employer benefits. But there's options that you can offer benefits to is as minimal as two people with the Chamber program. So there's, there's a lot of information out there and not a lot of people understand that they have the option to begin with. But then when they do know they have the option, how do you go about getting it started?

0:05:56 - (Grace George): What do we have to do? What does setup look like? There's a lot of, there's not a lot of steps, but depending on the business, it can be more time consuming than less. But the employee retention is a huge factor and a lot of people are leaning more towards a health savings account nowadays as well. And that is, it's typically that's the second question that follows up after can I even offer this to my employees is do will I have a health savings account option? And there are health savings account plan options available through the Chamber program.

0:06:31 - (Doug Jenkins): What makes a health savings account look, look like something that businesses are interested in or what has made those more appealing? I asked that in a really awkward way. What has made those more appealing, Grace?

0:06:45 - (Grace George): So one thing that, that a lot of employers will do is contribute towards that health savings account for their employees. Depending on how much the employer is already paying for the premium cost. A lot of the times they'll set like a flat rate for that yearly contribution. So most employers will provide 1,000, maybe $2,000 towards that savings account. Basically what that does is it gets it kick started for them.

0:07:15 - (Grace George): So it allows the employees to continue adding on top of the money that is already in there from the employer. And then the benefit of having it is it's an established savings account that you can pull from when you have a medical bill or you can even use it for braces for your kids or eyeglasses. There's a lot of additional things that you can use that money for that is not just for your co pay at the doctor's office.

0:07:52 - (Doug Jenkins): So let's get into the Chamber plan, the SOCA miwa, which is just a whole lot of letters that we've slammed together for that. What does that mean? And then how does that work for Chamber members?

0:08:05 - (Grace George): Yeah, so the SOCA is the Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance. The more important is the mewa, the Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement. So it's basically a big bucket that all of these smaller businesses are a part of, typically through chambers. And it kind of just allows everyone to spread. I say Share the wealth. That's kind of not the best way to explain it because typically what it does is if you've got one company that's got a really sick person and you got another company that's really healthy, it kind of helps spread out the, the expense and the cost of having that really, really sick employee.

0:08:50 - (Grace George): So it's one of those things that the carriers look at along. And when you have a really, really sick person, maybe for one year or something like that, they can look at, okay, this company has not done very well this year. However, all of these other ones have. So that kind of helps pick up the slack in a way. Some people might think that that is not beneficial because it can work vice versa. Where you might have a really, really good year, where your employees are healthy, you don't have many claims, and you still might get a 12% increase.

0:09:27 - (Grace George): That is where health agents come into play. That's where having a good relationship with your carrier is a huge factor. Because you can go back, you can negotiate that typically, and if worse comes to worse, you can always take it back to the market and shop around to see what else is out there.

0:09:44 - (Doug Jenkins): So one of the things that people have liked about the plan through the chamber is that they've got access to a lot of providers this way. It's not a small time plan. It's run through Anthem and Anthem is accepted in a lot of different places.

0:10:01 - (Grace George): Yeah, Anthem's a huge name. More often than not, people are going to recognize it. Anthem, Blue Cross, Blue Shield. It goes by a few different names, but it's very, very rare that you come across a provider that's not going to accept Anthem Blue Cross.

0:10:16 - (Doug Jenkins): It's also fairly modular, if I remember right, because you can also add on if you want to have vision, if you want to have dental. I think even life insurance is available through it.

0:10:28 - (Grace George): Yeah, you can tack on those benefits. Really, you can tack those on right away when you set up a policy. You can add them on later on throughout the years at renewal time. It's one of those things where as long as you have the medical, you can really add on anything additional after that.

0:10:47 - (Doug Jenkins): The thing that I like, and last year I had to use it, I was the unhealthy employee last year. This year I've been a portrait of health, knock on wood. Last. Last year I had some things that I had to get taken care of. And rather than call the call tree through Anthem, I just called local and I think maybe it was you I talked to and I was like, Hey, I have to get this procedure on my eye. Done. Am I covered?

0:11:11 - (Doug Jenkins): You looked it up right away? Yep. You're good. All right, cool. Good to go. I think that really speaks to how user friendly the program is as well.

0:11:23 - (Grace George): Yeah, yeah. That definitely is a huge benefit. In shopping Local, you've got people that are working in the area who know the products, who know you. So it's one of those things where you can always call the 1-800number on the back of your ID card. You're more than welcome to. But I always tell people call me first because I can typically get around that call tree a little easier than you can. Most of the time I don't even need the call tree. I have resources at my fingertips that I can look that stuff up. If I don't know the answer off the top of my head.

0:12:00 - (Doug Jenkins): It's really, really helpful to be able to have something like that. And I think there's an app that goes along with it too. Is Teladoc included with it?

0:12:10 - (Grace George): Yes. Yeah. So there is an app, I believe it's called the Sydney app. S Y D N E Y. So that basically allows you to create another login. So it's one more login you have, but username, password. Typically you have to plug in your member ID number. So you have to have a policy number, which means that you have an active policy with the carrier in order to create that. But that allows you to go in. Typically you can access your ID cards virtually.

0:12:41 - (Grace George): So if you misplace it, if you don't have it on hand, you can always pull it up on your phone and it's. It's the same exact card. So that's a really nice benefit that a lot of people nowadays will use. You also are able to track claims. So in your situation, you really aren't sure what the cost is going to be most of the time until after the procedure is done.

0:13:05 - (Doug Jenkins): Right.

0:13:06 - (Grace George): Even like for an emergency revisit. I had to go to the ER a couple weeks ago and it's one of those things where I didn't know what to expect. Cost wise, you'll still always get something in the mail, but it's typically always in the app before you get it in the mail. So you can always keep things updated and you can always be a little more in the loop faster with the technology versus the snail mail.

0:13:33 - (Doug Jenkins): You mentioned that this is a plan that works from 2 to 50 employee type businesses. There's also a sole proprietor plan, correct?

0:13:42 - (Grace George): Yes. Yeah. So there is an option that we can we are able to look at that allows you to be a sole proprietor and still have access to the benefits. So it's just another check mark on the application.

0:13:55 - (Doug Jenkins): So let's talk about the smaller businesses that have used. It's typically the smaller businesses, maybe two to 10 employees who will come in and be really curious about that when they first start shopping around. Obviously you can't name businesses specifically, but tell us about walking through like some of those smaller two person businesses through some of the concerns that they have and how you're able to help them.

0:14:22 - (Grace George): So the biggest concern is always the cost. What is this going to cost me? Normally the cost always comes from how healthy or unhealthy you are. So if you've got two really young, healthy employees that really only go to the doctor, hopefully just once a year just to get their routine physical, they're gonna look, they're gonna look a lot better and their rates are typically gonna be lower than someone who might be on a few medications might not be the healthiest person in the world.

0:14:56 - (Grace George): So it's, the health is always a factor when it comes to the cost of things. But that is something that, that I always discuss before we even consider looking at the rates because there are, there have been times where I've tried to get quotes for groups and they just won't, the carriers won't take them because of the health status of the group as a whole. But I also have carriers who will follow back up with me and say, hey, why didn't you place this business with us? This, this group looked really good.

0:15:32 - (Grace George): So it's always, every situation is different when it comes to that.

0:15:38 - (Doug Jenkins): So the important thing is one, have the discussion and have it with someone knowledgeable in the industry. So Grace, if somebody would like to reach out and learn more about the chamber of commerce program and how it might be able to benefit them, how can they get in touch with you?

0:15:54 - (Grace George): I always prefer talking about this on the phone with people mainly because there's, there's always a question that pops into your head that you don't think about until the conversation gets going. So the office phone number is the best way to contact me for verbal conversation. That number is 419-423-9145. It doesn't directly ring to my phone, but you can. Whoever answers, you can always ask for Grace. And if I'm available, I'll always take the call.

0:16:24 - (Grace George): If email is better, you can contact us@infohitchingsinsurance.com awesome.

0:16:29 - (Doug Jenkins): Well Grace, we appreciate you talking to us and getting more information out about the insurance plan as we go into that fun time of the year for you. So just a few things to remember from today's episode. It's the tax season of health insurance. When you look at how the calendar breaks down, the annual enrollment period for Medicare starts October 15, and the Marketplace opens November 1, which means this is a critical window to switch or adjust plans for the next year for your business. Or if you're thinking about offering insurance for the first time for your business, now's a great time to look at it too, because insurance professionals are already in that mode. And as Grace advised, it's the perfect time for your business to review its current health insurance offerings. Like I just said, don't just auto renew. Take that deep dive to make sure that you have the best possible plan for your employees and for your bottom line. Having that conversation can go a really long way into helping shore up your bottom line when it comes to this line item.

0:17:25 - (Doug Jenkins): Well, that'll wrap up this episode of the podcast. Chamber Amplified is a free resource for the community from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce, made possible by the support of our members. Their investment drives everything we do, whether it's business advocacy and leadership programs, to providing you with timely local information through things like podcasts and our programs like Fresh Fruit Business.

0:17:45 - (Doug Jenkins): If you want to strengthen our community and grow your business, we'd love to have you on board. Just let me know if you're interested and we can talk about how an investment in the Chamber benefits you as well. If you have an idea for a future episode, let's hear it. Send me a note@djenkinsindleyhancockchamber.com thanks again for listening and don't miss out on the next episode of Chamber Amplified.