Group Benefit Plans

Massachusetts Group Health Insurance

In a dynamic healthcare marketplace, medical programs continually evolve to satisfy both regulatory and cost-containment needs. On top of all this, not all employer groups are created equal, which is why carriers have developed a wide range of plan design options. Now add in HRAs, FSAs, HSAs, and a host of other three letter acronyms, and all of this becomes very confusing very quickly.

Navigating the complex maze of medical plan design options is an incredibly daunting task, one that employers should not go at alone.

That’s why for small and mid-size Massachusetts employers, Universal Benefit Plans designs, implements and manages highly innovative health insurance programs based entirely on each client’s unique coverage and budgetary needs.

Supplemental Health Gap Coverage

For businesses with high-deductible health plans, Universal Benefit Plans provides a supplemental coverage product from Transamerica that helps employees offset high out-of-pocket expenses.

The product—Group Out-of-pocket Medical Expense Indemnity Insurance—pays an indemnity benefit for deductible expenses, co-insurances and co-pays.

Plan components include:

In-hospital benefit
Outpatient hospital benefit
Ambulance benefit for accident-related ground or air ambulance
transportation

Massachusetts Group Dental Insurance

Dental insurance consistently ranks as the second most requested employee benefit after health insurance and is a vital offering for employers looking to stay competitive.

Dental plans are available on an employer paid basis, contributory or on a purely voluntary basis. A combination of plans may also be used to give your employees a choice and meet the varied needs of a multigenerational workforce.

There are many different types of dental plans available including:

Indemnity Plans
Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs)
Managed Care Dental Programs (DHMO)
Freedom of Choice Programs
Direct Reimbursement Programs
Discount Dental Plans

Universal Benefit Plans will provide you with an in-depth analysis of each of the above plan designs and custom tailor a program for your organization’s unique needs.

Group Short Term Disability

Short-term disability insurance provides income replacement benefits to your employees when they’re unable to work for a short period of time due to a covered illness or injury.

Common causes of disability absence include:

Maternity leave
Cancer treatment
Injury

Universal Benefit Plans offers employers short-term disability (STD) insurance plans from multiple carriers to meet unique employer and group needs.

Plan options include:

Choice of earning definitions, income replacement percentages, benefit maximums and elimination periods
Seamless coordination with LTD for longer duration disabilities
Plan designs for small, mid-size and larger employers

Mid Term Disability Plan

Mid Term Disability Plans are designed to protect you in the event of a debilitating accident.

Unlike other disability policies, the Mid Term policy provides you with an amount of benefits contingent upon your salary at the time of your disability. The contingency is based on a percentage of your base monthly salary.

At Universal Benefit Plans, we can help find an affordable Mid Term Disability Plan that will protect you – and your income.

You can learn more about Mid Term Disability plans by speaking to one of our dedicated agents or filling out our online contact form.

Group Long Term Disability

When an employee becomes disabled, it can have devastating financial implications. According to the Council for Disability Awareness (CDA), the average long-term disability (LTD) absence from work lasts 2.5 years (which is a very long time to go without a paycheck).

LTD policies pick up where short-term disability (STD) leaves off. Policies pay employees who have become disabled a percentage of their salary with payout periods ranging from 5-10 years, up to age 65 or for life.

Plan options include:

Riders such as residual benefits and cost of living adjustment (COLA)
An “own occupation” policy designation

Universal Benefit Plans offers employers long-term disability (LTD) insurance plans from multiple carriers to meet unique employer and group needs. We will work closely with your management team to design a LTD policy that achieves maximum employee coverage and stays within employer budgetary constraints.

Group Life Insurance

Life insurance is a vital offering in an employee benefits package as most individuals look to their employers to provide this coverage.

Plans are available on a 100% employer-paid, contributory or voluntary basis (which allows the employee to purchase additional life insurance coverage through the convenience of payroll deductions)

Generally speaking, there are two different types of life insurance policies:

Term life insurance—which allows employees to purchase pure death benefit coverage at inexpensive group term rates
Cash value programs (i.e. whole life and universal life)—which provide several additional benefits including the tax-deferred accumulation of cash

Universal Benefit Plans offers a comprehensive portfolio of group life insurance policies from a variety of top carriers and will custom build a program tailored to your group’s unique needs.

Additionally, we provide a variety of voluntary life insurance options for employees desiring protection above and beyond the basic group term insurance you offer.

Group Vision

When many companies choose their employee benefits plans, group vision tends to be overlooked. It is widely known that health and dental care costs are continuing to skyrocket- which is why many employers provide insurance coverage to help ease the costs associated with visits to your doctor and dentist. But what about those employees who have less than 20/20 vision? They typically have to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket to afford their eye exams, contacts, and glasses.

Visits to the optometrist are no less expensive- and no less mandatory than other health care responsibilities. Why not provide your employees with a vision insurance plan to complement their medical and dental coverage? By offering group vision insurance, you will be more attractive to prospective employees, and more likely to hold onto your current all-stars.

Your employees will certainly appreciate your decision to offer group vision insurance.

The need for long term care is definitely a concern of our aging workforce, although an employee at any age can face an illness or injury leaving them unable to perform the basic tasks of daily living. This can result from arthritis, Alzheimer’s Disease, a sudden stroke, cancer or another illness or injury.

Your health plan generally will not cover the cost of long-term care, Medicare does not cover long term care and Medicaid is only available once most other personal financial resources have run dry.

Universal Benefit Plans offers employers a variety of Group Long-term Care (GLTC) Insurance plans from a variety of carriers.

GLTC plans generally cover services such as:

Skilled, intermediate, and custodial care in state-licensed nursing homes
Home care services
Assisted living and adult day care services
Respite care services