By Tim Kanter
I know you’ve probably received dozens of emails about COVID-19, so aside from telling you that we are here, working and ready to help, I wanted to give you three important pieces of information that can actually help you today.
Medical and Commercial Insurance policies may be flexible.
Initially, many health insurance companies offered a special enrollment period for employees to enroll if they didn’t at the annual renewal. In addition, some carriers allowed employees to switch plans outside of the normal renewal window. Some carriers have been flexible with late pays and keeping furloughed employees on the plan. If you want more information, please contact my office and we will see what’s still available.
With your commercial policies, we have seen success recently in reducing premium costs by updating insurance companies with new revenue numbers. Most liability policies are rated on revenue, and workers’ comp policies are based on payroll. If you’re experiencing a change in either, reach out to us to see if we can help you save money in those areas.
If you are unfortunately faced with possibly having to terminate employees, you are required to notify them about their options to continue insurance. Specifically, through COBRA.
We have a template you can use to give to terminated employees. We suggest you put it on your letterhead and forward to those employees immediately following the action. You can download it here.
Keep up to date on the latest information about the stimulus and more through our free tool, ThinkHR.
We provide you access to ThinkHR, which is a valuable resource in these uncertain times. The team at ThinkHR is constantly updating information about the virus, as well as legislation and government response.
The new stimulus package has provisions for small businesses, that include loans for employers keeping their employees on payroll that, under the right conditions, could be forgiven. That’s basically free money you don’t want to miss out on. Check ThinkHR often for the latest. If you need log in information, let me know.
That’s it for now. Stay safe and healthy, and if there’s anything we can do to help, please don’t hesitate to call us at 805-273-7117.