Group Insurance for US Employers
Employee benefits for US employers - built around your budget, your workforce and your renewal calendar, then administered by our team all year.
Who it is for
Employers with two or more W-2 employees who want a benefits program their people understand and an HR team that is not spending Fridays on hold with a carrier.
Our group book:
- First medical plans to several-hundred-life companies
- Multiple locations and staff on work visas
- Professional services, healthcare, engineering, IT staffing, hospitality, retail
- Eligibility tracked properly as headcount moves
Starting fresh or renewing:
- No plan yet – we build around your budget
- Existing plan marketed against the full panel
- Told plainly when staying put is right
What is covered
A group program is a stack of separate policies that need to line up on eligibility, effective dates and payroll deductions. We place all of them.
Medical
- PPO, HMO, EPO and HSA-qualified high-deductible designs
- Fully insured – the carrier holds the risk
- Level funded – healthy groups keep unspent claims funding
Dental and vision
- DPPO and DHMO dental plans
- Maximums, waiting periods and orthodontia spelled out
- Vision: exams, lenses, frames, contact allowances
- Employer paid or voluntary
Life and AD&D
- Employer-paid basic life, guaranteed-issue amount
- Voluntary and dependent life buy-ups at Open Enrollment
- No individual underwriting up to the guarantee
Disability
- Short-term bridges injury, surgery or maternity leave
- Long-term protects income when someone cannot return
- Elimination periods and benefit percentages chosen together
Expat and global plans
- Staff on H-1B, L-1 and other work visas
- Employees posted abroad and inbound assignees
- Global medical that travels with the person
Voluntary add-ons
- Accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity
- Cash benefits paid against a high deductible
- Makes a lean medical plan feel whole
Fully insured or level funded?
This is the decision that moves the number most, and it is worth understanding before you look at rates.
| Fully insured | Level funded | |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds the claims risk | The carrier | The employer, capped by stop-loss cover |
| Monthly cost | A fixed premium | A fixed monthly amount covering claims funding, admin and stop-loss |
| If the group runs healthy | The carrier keeps the margin | A surplus refund may be returned per the contract |
| Underwriting | Often community or composite rated | Medically underwritten, so a healthy census is rewarded |
| Reporting | Limited claims visibility | Regular claims and utilisation reporting |
| Usually suits | Groups wanting budget certainty and no surprises | Younger or healthier groups willing to trade some variability for upside |
We quote both where the group qualifies and present them side by side. Nobody should choose a funding arrangement because a broker preferred it.
How AIS helps
This is where we differ from an agency that disappears after the sale. AIS runs the entire service desk for your benefits program.
- Enrollments. New hires enrolled with the carrier on the correct effective date, every line at once.
- Terminations. Employee and dependent terminations submitted with the right termination reason and date.
- Dependent changes. Marriage, divorce, a child ageing off, a qualifying life event mid-year.
- Newborn additions. Added inside the carrier window so the birth is covered, not denied.
- ID cards. Chased with the carrier and delivered to the employee when the mail does not arrive.
- Certificates of coverage. Requested and supplied for visa filings, loans and new-carrier proof.
- Carrier billing questions. Invoice reconciliation, retro adjustments and credits worked on your behalf.
- Open Enrollment. Materials, employee meetings and the enrollment window run for you.
Waiting-period administration
Wrong effective dates are the top cause of denied new-hire claims.
- Date-of-hire, first-of-month, 30/60-day or set-month rules
- Applied the way the carrier reads them
- Calculated from hire date – same answer every time
COBRA support
Continuation notices have deadlines; we keep group clients on them.
- Qualifying events and notice timing
- Coordination with the carrier or COBRA administrator
- Free POP, ERISA wrap and Form 5500 help
- Compliance details
How onboarding works
- Discovery. Headcount, locations, renewal date, current plan and what you want to change.
- Census and marketing. We take the census to the panel and gather quotes across funding types.
- Presentation. Plan designs, networks, employer and employee cost, and the trade-offs, in one comparison.
- Enrollment. The group is built in EASE, employees self-enroll online, and we audit the submissions.
- Go live. Carrier confirmation, ID cards, payroll deduction schedule and a written summary for HR.
- All year. The service desk takes over – and the renewal conversation starts well before the deadline.
Group insurance FAQ
If yours is not here, call 281-769-1180 or email casula@aisinsuranceinc.com.