Are you a small business owner?  Or, perhaps your company is opening a new office in North Carolina and you are interested in providing your employees with group health insurance.  If so, consider a Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina group health insurance plan.

Group health insurance is often less expensive than individual insurance and is a great way to give your employees a perk.   In addition, group insurance can help employers by providing certain tax benefits.  What an employer contributes towards the health insurance coverage of their employees is a deductible business expense and in some small group cases may even qualify for a tax credit.  In addition, employees can often pay for their share of group health premiums using pre-tax dollars.  Pre-tax treatment of employee contributions saves employee’s money and it reduces net taxable payroll.  These same tax benefits do not apply to individual health insurance.

If you are interested in providing group coverage to your employees, talk with one of our licensed and professional agents to discuss your options.  For more information on North Carolina insurance coverage, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is offering more ways to help you spend less for health coverage for your employees.  More small group plans, options, flexibility, health and wellness programs, cost transparency and peace of mind.  Now, more than ever, you can have both better value and better health for you and your employees.

Blue Cross is offering a variety of health insurance plans,  providing you with more choices, more savings and the same superior coverage you expect from BCBSNC.  Click here to request a group insurance quote today.

• Blue Options – Our flagship PPO plan
• Blue Options 1-2-3 – Our traditional PPO plan design with customer driven health care engagement
• Blue Options HSA – Our consumer-driven health savings account plan

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health. Call us for details.

Last week, investment bank Morgan Stanley issued a “Healthcare Services & Distribution” report that makes reference to a potential change in Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s (BCBSNC) Pharmacy Benefits Management relationship. Because this mention could generate questions from our customers, we want to share some information with you about this. As part of our effort to reduce costs for our company and our customers, BCBSNC is in negotiations to change our pharmacy benefits management vendor. Assuming that final negotiations are concluded successfully and we receive regulatory approval, Prime Therapeutics would administer pharmacy benefits for our commercial customers whose pharmacy benefits we handle.

We hope this change will take place beginning April 1, 2012. This change would result in lower pharmacy costs for BCBSNC and our group customers, and would provide more flexibility regarding services and programs.

(more…)

Flexible Group Health Plans for North Carolina Employees of Small, Medium and Large Businesses from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Jerry Ballard and Associates d/b/a NC Health Plans is pleased to introduce you to North Carolina Group Health Insurance Plans from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the leading provider of group health and life insurance in North Carolina.

Choose from a variety of popular Major Medical plans, supplemental plans and term life plans to create a powerful package of benefits for your employees.

Plans include a choice of deductibles, low co-payments for doctor office visits and wellness benefits such as physicals, prescription drug coverage and unlimited lifetime benefits

What BCBSNC group health plan is best for your company?  Submit your online application by completing the employee census form, if you have 25 or fewer employees. If you have more than 25 employees, please print out and complete the 26+ Census Form and fax to Jerry Ballard & Associates, 919-287-2777.

We will email your Group Health Plan quote. Please note that we may have to call you once with questions to ensure the accuracy of our group health quote.

Any questions? Feel free to call the helpful professionals at Jerry Ballard & Associates, your independent North Carolina health and life insurance agency: toll free 888-765-5400 or 252-726-5400. Our goal is to provide you with exceptional customer service.

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health. Call us for details.

SMALL BUSINESSES, BIG RISKS
There’s a direct correlation between an employer’s size and the likelihood that the firm will provide health benefits to its employees. The smaller the company, the less likely it is to provide coverage – a reality that impacts all demographics.

That’s a particular problem for North Carolina, because small businesses are increasingly the engine behind the state’s economy: 98 percent of businesses in North Carolina are small businesses,* and more than half of them don’t offer health insurance.** It’s hard for small businesses to qualify for rates as low as those available for large firms, particularly if some of their workforce is in poor health.
About half of the uninsured in North Carolina (55.3 percent) work for a small firm or belong to a family where someone works for a small firm (fewer than 25 employees).***

For more information on health insurance coverage in North Carolina, please visit our website at www.nchealthplans.com or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our qualified agents.  Our agency provides coverage for health insurance in North Carolina through Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health.  Call us for details.

United States Small Business Administration. http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/profiles/06nc.pdf
Fifty-nine percent of North Carolina businesses don’t offer health benefits. Kaiser Family Foundation State Health Facts. 2002.
“North Carolina’s Uninsured.” North Carolina Medical Journal. May/June 2006.BCBSNC, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, Small Businesses and Health Insurance, Health Benefits

Group health insurance plans, such as Blue Options PPO, differ from individual/family health insurance plans, such as the Blue Advantage plan, in several ways. First of all, they are most often sponsored by an employer, who in NC, must contribute at least 50% of the cost of the employee portion of the premium. Groups must also have at least 75% of their eligible employees (full time working 30 hours or more per week) participating on the plan, less anyone who is on another group plan. Blue Advantage can be applied for by any resident of North Carolina who is under 65 and who is not on Medicare or Medicaid – there are no participation requirements.

(more…)