TalkStory Media: Business Edition Podcast

Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Costs: Steve Wright's Guide to MEC Insurance Plans for Businesses

Austin Behic & William Peetoom Season 2 Episode 112

Steve Wright - Sharing - H.O.P.E. "Helping Other People Everyday!"
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Company link: Business Link Solutions

Unlock the secrets of cost-effective healthcare benefits with Steve Wright from BusinessLink Solutions as we explore the nuanced world of Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) insurance plans. Prepare to transform your understanding of what it means to provide affordable, comprehensive healthcare to your employees. Steve's heart for service shines through as we discuss how MEC plans to meet legal standards set by the Affordable Care Act and present an innovative approach to benefits—such as unlimited doctor's visits without copays and even virtual pet care services. More than just a medical safety net, these plans boast a financial upside, boosting employee paychecks and slicing employer FICA taxes, making them a win-win for the cost-savvy business owner.

Peeling back the layers of the often-dreaded employee benefits paperwork, this episode is a deep dive into the streamlined enrollment process that BusinessLink Solutions offers, saving employers time and headaches. We walk through how a simple payroll report can blossom into a full-fledged benefits proposal within a day, ensuring your company fosters better employee retention and remains compliant with a nod of approval from major payroll firms. Tune in as we reveal the strategic financial benefits that can positively impact workers' compensation rates, all through savvy payroll adjustments. Steve Wright brings to light how MEC plans are not just about meeting the bare minimum; they're about elevating the standard of care for your team while keeping your business financially healthy. 

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TalkStory Media Presents our Business Edition Podcast is an intimate interview setting with leaders of our shared global business communities, offering best practices and hacks to achieve success. Inspire, Empower & Impact is our mission with a Vision to uptick the world we contribute to.

Together, share and simplify the latest research and best practices from award-winning business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals to educate and empower you on how to make money, save money, and compound the interest of earned revenue to thrive happier, healthier, and improve your business practices for greater efficient impact. The end result is that you understand alternative pathways to roads less traveled to success that the daring duo share on the show.

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ignite San Diego, sparked by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), we resolve the challenges and obstacles of growing a successful business to be victorious in a new era of innovat...

Speaker 1:

Transcripts provided by Transcription Outsourcing LLC. Share and simplify the latest research and best practices from award-winning business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals to educate and empower you on how to make money, save money and compound the interest of earned revenue to thrive, happier, healthier and improve your business practices for greater efficient impact. The end result is that you understand alternative pathways to roads less traveled, to success that the daring duo share on the show. Together with Ignite San Diego, sparked by the BBB, we resolve the challenges and obstacles of growing a successful business to be victorious in a new era of innovation. This production is supported by the Better Business Bureau, national Referral Network, countywide Mortgage Lending, business Group Resources and Kaizen Group International.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Talk Story Media Business Edition podcast show with William P Toome and my co-host, austin Behic. He will not be joining us today, but is tuning in from somewhere in the globe. Today we have an amazing interview. We're going to be talking insurance and there is what they call a minimum essential coverage, or also known as a MEC plan, that a lot of business owners don't know about but have to comply to. And today we have Steve Wright from BusinessLink Solutions on to explain and to share what it is and how it affects our business community and how it can impact and empower your company. So, without further ado, it's Steve Wright, you there, your company.

Speaker 3:

So, without further ado, steve Wright, you there. Yes, hi William, thank you for having me. I appreciate it, I appreciate the opportunity and hopefully this will help educate people in understanding what policies are out there and how they work and how they could definitely benefit and better and make their company more attractive as far as retention in employees and then also offering them better benefits at minimal cost.

Speaker 2:

Sounds like there's a lot of benefits and features to this program. But first, if you could share who you are. You got a length of accolades and you've been in the business for over 20 years, so you know a little something about insurance. So could you share with our audience what got you to where you are today?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know I wasn't looking to become an insurance agent, but at the time I was transitioning from one career in sales to looking for another opportunity and back 20 years ago there wasn't a lot of internet. I think I found it in the paper and replied to an ad and before you knew it, I was becoming an insurance agent and what attracted me to this company and to doing it was really their philosophy and I've embraced it ever since. I was telling William, when I went into the office to be interviewed, there was a poster on the wall and it said HOPE the acronym HOPE and it stood for helping other people every day and I thought I can do this. Yeah, I thought this is something that is good for me.

Speaker 3:

I always, anything I ever did in sales, I always I was always good at sales, but really it was because I believed in and worked with a company that had a great product. I wasn't going to sell something that I didn't believe in. I just couldn't ethically do that in my heart and that's how. That's how I got started and and you know it's it's grown ever since and evolved and and now we've we've found this MEC policy and and the way it's structured uniquely ends up having coverage for for employees, but also they're able to increase their pay by an average of $1,500 a year net and also save the employer money on their FICA tax, which makes it literally a zero out-of-pocket expense for both the employer and the employee.

Speaker 2:

That is just overwhelming and so aligned with your acronym HOPE, Helping Other People Every Day and by doing so, this Minimum Essential Coverage, Section 125 program can you share? What is it actually and what's the significance?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and that's a great question. So, understanding how a MEC works, it is what they call a Section 125. And a Section 125 just means that any health benefits health plan whether you're an employer and you offer group health insurance but don't cover 100 and the employee has to pay 50 um, their 50 percent under section 125 is pre-taxed. It allows you to pre-tax those uh premiums. So with the mech plan that we offer uh, it is a pre-taxed policy. Now, because it's a MEC, it's compliant with the Affordable Care Act that if you have 50 employees or more and you don't offer group health insurance, this will satisfy that requirement.

Speaker 3:

The MEC plan offers unlimited zero-copay doctor's visits, urgent care, copay doctors visits, urgent care. Unlimited telemed service, unlimited labs, blood work, x-rays, imaging. Zero copays, free preventative care, physicals, mammograms, obgyn and zero copays the $1 copays for prescription drugs. It's a phenomenal, phenomenal benefit. And they also offer virtual. They keep adding more and more benefits to these plans all the time. They also just added virtual pet care. It's not pet insurance, but it's an 800 number that you can call and talk to a vet to get professional opinion on whether it's, you know, let the dog, yeah, let the dog rest, or hey, you better get them to the the uh emergency uh pet pet hospital right away.

Speaker 2:

That that sounds so, um so amazing. Uh, but I'm kind of confused. What is the difference between a group plan and your MEC plan?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and again, another great question. So a major medical really, if you think about it, covers you for the big things. You're never really buying health insurance for the little things, for the doctor's business, even though we are always concerned with is it a $20 copay or a $30 copay that's not going to make you go bankrupt. A major medicalist will cover you for the big things, the hospitalizations, the cancer, if you have a heart attack, if you're in an accident. Those are the big things.

Speaker 3:

So this plan both enhances if you have a group plan. So in other words, if your company offers a group major medical, they use that for the surgeries and for the heart attacks and for cancer treatment, the expensive things. But by having a CHAMP plan it enhances those benefits to where any employee would much rather have a zero copay doctor's visit or a zero copay doctor's visit or a zero copay urgent care visit than having to pay $20, $30, $50, sometimes even $100 for an urgent care visit on some plans. So the MEC plan will cover the little things. We'll cover the little things, which is about 80% of the time anybody uses their health insurance is for the little things. So we cover the little things. Now, if you don't offer a group health insurance. This is something that's better than nothing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, so share with the audience who would qualify for this and how would one be eligible?

Speaker 3:

Okay. So the minimum requirement is there has to be a company that has 10 full-time employees, w-2 employees. So 1099s don't work, but W-2 employees that are full-time. Definition full-time is 30 hours or more on average. So if they're around that area, they just need be, you know, closer to or over uh, 30 hours a week and and literally that's it. As long as they are w-2s and the employees are paying tax, odds are they'll qualify for the plan. So the other thing of qualifying is we need to make sure that the employees are making around $30,000 a year or more so they're positively impacted.

Speaker 3:

And when I say positively impacted, I mean that when we do a pre-tax deduction for the MEC plan a, section 125, that they are going to increase their pay, and the way they increase it is this is a health management plan. This is a health management plan, it's not a wellness plan. So the difference is this is a proactive approach to health. They're going to be required to do certain activities every month to improve their health and it's AI-driven to where it will only send them videos, modules, tests on areas that they are concerned with. So in other words, let's just say I smoke, but William, you don't. It's not gonna ask you to watch a video on how to quit smoking. But maybe you have back pain and so it's gonna send you a video on how to reduce your back pain, how to do some stretching exercises, and it's gonna send me videos on how to quit smoking. Or if I need to lose weight or if my blood pressure is a little high and I want to reduce it, so it's going to send you specifically areas that you're concerned with to improve your health.

Speaker 3:

And there's some great statistics on companies that are on this plan typically have about a 25 reduction in employees calling in sick after a year of being on this plan. One, because they do also have that telemed where they can call a doctor at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that doctor can even prescribe medication. So rather than having to take a half a day off to go get antibiotics, they can call a doctor and within 30 minutes, go to their local CVS and pick up a prescription drug. It doesn't cost them anything and they don't have to miss any time off from work so efficient.

Speaker 2:

Harnessing technology has allowed us just to kind of maximize our time without having to wait in waiting rooms to see the doctor and book an appointment two weeks from now. And yeah, this is incredible, so share with us. This is this is incredible, so so share with us. What is the process, what, what, and you know how does one get started.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so the process is really simple. I just, first of all, we meet with the client, with the employer, and we go over it's a 30-minute consultation, education going over the details of the plan, how it works, what's the coverage. After that, it's a very simple way. We need a census form filled out, a simple census form filled out to get a proposal to see what the benefit is with them. That census, all we need is the name of the employee, the pay cycle whether they're weekly, bi-weekly, bi-monthly or monthly their last gross pay and the city and state they're in. That's it Four things, and we can build a proposal to show them how much they're going to save on their FICA tax and how much more pay increase the employees will get at that time.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 2:

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Speaker 3:

So we also do have a very proactive approach to helping employers out and understanding that some don't even have an HR department or even the HR department is not fully staffed and under stress of time to have this done. Our office will actually fill that census form out for them. If they just have their last payroll report, they can drag and drop that into a secure link over to us and we'll actually fill out that census for them. So we can make it extremely simple for them where literally the time that it'll take is the 30 minutes to do the PowerPoint with me to go over the details of it, dragging and dropping their report, their payroll report, into a secure link and send it to our office, and we'll produce that proposal within a couple of days for them. Now, once we get that proposal and they see the benefits and now they want to move forward, we have a more detailed census. We need to know more information like their social security number, their W-2, I mean their W-4 information, spousal dependents, stuff like that All basic stuff. If anybody's doing any major medical, they need to provide that. Or a 401k, they need to provide all that information. We'll help them with that as well. All we need is another report from their payroll service or their QuickBooks link. We can fill out all that for them.

Speaker 3:

Now the company that I work with they are at the verge of they've created the software that if a company uses ADP or Paychex or QuickBooks, we can literally download those reports into their software and they will produce a proposal within 24 hours. The technology will do it all States. As we pick up another payroll service with a client, they will input that payroll system into the software. So then that is also included in the software to then produce a proposal within a day.

Speaker 3:

Once the proposal is set and now the employer is ready to go, they say we want to start the enrollment process. There are no contracts, there are no fees for setup, there's no obligation, but we then have the client sign a request for coverage, which just means that they're ready to start the enrollment process. And then at that time we start doing education with the employees. I meet with their employees and go over the benefits of the plan. And then we start doing a slow drip email campaign to the employees and set up a time to go over their payroll, how to do the deductions, how to do the after-tax insurance claim back into their check and set everything up. It takes about two weeks' time sometimes three weeks depending on how busy they are to set up their payroll and then we go live. Wow, it's very simple.

Speaker 3:

It's very, very minimal. We try to make it as minimal time as possible for companies because we know they're busy and they're shorthanded.

Speaker 2:

So again, you're educating, you're empowering and you're giving hope to our business community by helping others every day. Exactly so. A company is on the fence with a couple employees that are just under 30 hours and maybe just under 30,000. How can this program support an individual like that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so that happens. That can happen quite a bit. I mean because minimum wage is going up across the country. It's really becoming a challenge for somebody not to qualify for this, meaning they're not going to have an increase in their pay. If it ends up that only five are positively impacted, we'll still enroll them and we'll still offer the plan to the employer and to those five employees.

Speaker 3:

I have talked to an employer that said I have a couple of employees that are on the fence. They're barely 30 hours a week, and he actually came up with this idea because I'd never tell a company how to run their business. But he said so if I increase their hours by three, four hours a week, they would probably qualify. And I said absolutely. He says well, that's what I'm going to do, I'm going to increase their hours. And I said that'll probably keep your employee too, because if he's working less than 30 hours, he's probably working another job somewhere else as well. You may have a better retention of that employee by offering these benefits to him and giving him more hours to make a better living.

Speaker 2:

Wow, great way to invest in your employees and show them that you care.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, yeah, so.

Speaker 2:

I'm reading the program here and it talks about reducing FICA tax, which would then affect the workers compensation rate. Can you elaborate on that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and so this is, this is the. We're going into the details of the plan and and a lot of times, you know, like the first time I heard about this, I I kind of cocked my head like a dog hearing a weird sound because it is dealing with payroll and pre-tax and post tax, Because this is a health management plan and because the employees have to do certain activities.

Speaker 3:

They have to watch a video every month or do a watching module or do a test on the areas that they want to improve in their health. That will produce a insurance claim put back into their check after tax. So there's pre-tax premiums going out, there's after-tax money going in and that's how it then creates a higher paycheck for the employees okay, I think I got it, I hope that answered your question

Speaker 3:

okay, I think I got it. I hope that answered your question. Yeah, you know, and that's why I always encourage people when, when we start talking about it, when we start going over the details if anybody's like me and I'm very visual, I need to see it. Yeah, I do a sample paycheck, uh, in my presentation to show them exactly where and how everything works. But the way they strategically position this plan legally through IRS codes. In fact, adp, the largest payroll company in the nation, promotes this MEC plan and, like I tell everybody ADP, they're not only a payroll company, but they sell compliance. They would not refer us to their clients if they weren't 100% confident that this was a compliant way of offering a health plan to their employees.

Speaker 2:

That's great credibility to their, their employees. That's, that's great credibility, yeah, yeah. So it makes me think of a policy that I have, but it's more uh on the catastrophic end. Um, can you have multiple MEC plans? Could I add this to my current existing section 125?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know, there's nothing wrong with having having you know more's nothing wrong with having you know more, and absolutely the answer to your question is yes, you can have as many as you want, because there are. You know, there's numerous different areas of section 125. Like you said, a catastrophic now a catastrophic is almost like it's different than what the minimum essential coverage plan is, because we're're again covering the little things. Now your catastrophic is probably covering heart attacks, cancer, stroke, kidney failure, organ transplants all the major, you know, all the major uh things that people are typically is like a critical illness, right?

Speaker 3:

so so those are covering certain specific areas, but they're the big things you know. While you may never use that and hopefully you never use your catastrophic, because that means you're in a situation, right, a health situation, a serious health situation. These are the things that are. You know, the MEC plan covers you for the. The every day is 8% of the time anybody ever uses uh. Their insurance is covered with with the uh, the MEC plan.

Speaker 2:

Good, good, good advice. I, I'm just uh in awe, so, um, coming down to the wire, uh, steve Wright, uh, this has been a very informative interview conversation. What advice would you give to business owners that either have less than 50 or over 50 employees, and what nuggets of wisdom would you share with them?

Speaker 3:

So a couple of things that I would encourage is if you have whether, it's plan will save you $11,472 a year on your FICA tax. If you have 50 employees, it'll save you over $28,000. If you have 100 employees, it'll save you over $57,000 a year on your FICA tax. Guaranteed tax guaranteed Plus. It's going to give your employees better benefits and it's going to increase their pay by an average of $1,500 a year per employee without you having to pay them a single dime more in their salary. That's amazing. It's a win-win for everybody. I love it.

Speaker 2:

Yes. So, steve, thank you so very much for coming on. We'll have additional information on how to set up a consultation in the description box below this interview. Steve, thank you so much. We'd love to have you back on the show and talk about other healthcare models that are out there, because there's just so many and we're just here to educate and empower our business community to elevate. So any last words of wisdom.

Speaker 3:

I just want to say thank you, william, so much for giving me this platform and this opportunity and the time, because I feel like the more I can get the word out, the more again going back to helping other people every day, the more opportunity I have to actually help people, because that's all this really this policy is doing is helping businesses, helping people, helping employees. So I appreciate your time and appreciate helping me get the word out on this plan.

Speaker 2:

We appreciate you. Thank you so much, Steve Wright. Steve Wright from Business Link Solutions, regional manager here in San Diego, and we look forward to hearing more of his insight to insurance in the future. I'm William P Toombe, executive producer and co-host of Talk Story Business Edition. As a seasoned tax savings specialist, I'm dedicated to helping small business owners and nonprofits, as well as municipalities, achieve their growth and scalability.

Speaker 2:

Our show focuses on empowering credentialed minority business owners and entrepreneurs and aims to foster a thriving business community. And aims to foster a thriving business community, Proudly sponsored by Kaizen Group International, who shares a vision of success through their programs that provide invaluable support to businesses looking to optimize their tax incentives. To explore the benefits of opportunities, visit taxincentiverecoverycom. Don't miss out on unlocking untapped potential and maximizing savings for a stronger and more prosperous future. Join us on Talk Story Media Business Edition as we work together to accelerate your business's success. You can catch us on all your favorite streaming services. Don't miss a single episode. Tune in today and supercharge your business journey with Talk Story Business Edition. This is a Talk Story Media production. Talk Story Business Edition is hosted by Austin Behic and William P Toon, Supported by the Better Business Bureau National Referral Network, Countywide Mortgage Lending and Kaizen Group International.

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