If you’re shopping for health insurance for your small business, you may be surprised to learn that CaliforniaChoice is available exclusively through employee benefits brokers. Employers don’t purchase CaliforniaChoice coverage directly from CaliforniaChoice.

At first, that might sound like an extra step. But there’s a good reason for it: you get a professional in your corner to help you evaluate your choices, manage the details, and support you and your employees after the sale.

Think of your broker as your health insurance guide — not just someone who helps you choose a plan, but someone who can be there throughout the life of your coverage.

Here are five common questions employers ask about working with a broker

1: Why do I need a broker? Can’t I get better service working directly with CaliforniaChoice?

Health insurance can be complicated. There are different premiums, deductibles, copays, coinsurance, provider networks, and plan types to consider. Then there are your employees, who may have very different needs. One employee might prioritize a lower monthly premium. Another may want to keep a particular doctor. Someone with ongoing prescriptions may care most about drug coverage. Another employee may prefer a PPO for greater flexibility. An experienced health insurance broker can help you make sense of those choices.

With CaliforniaChoice, employees may be able to choose from multiple health plans and coverage options, including HMOs, PPOs, and HSA-qualified plans, depending on where they live and the options available through your group.

Your broker can help you:

• Compare health insurance plans and coverage options
• Understand premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance
• Evaluate provider networks and help employees check their doctors
• Understand prescription drug coverage
• Complete enrollment paperwork accurately
• Prepare for and conduct your employee open enrollment meeting
• Navigate questions that come up throughout the year

Instead of trying to become a health insurance expert yourself, you have a professional to guide you.

2: Doesn’t using a broker increase costs for my business?

This is one of the biggest misconceptions about working with a health insurance broker. Using a broker doesn’t mean you’re paying an additional fee for access to coverage. Broker compensation is generally built into the insurance carrier’s pricing structure.

In other words, working with a broker isn’t necessarily a choice between paying less or paying more for the same coverage. The bigger question is what you get from having a knowledgeable professional helping you navigate the process. That support can have real value.

A broker can help you compare options, identify potential cost-saving opportunities, and choose coverage that fits both your employees’ needs and your business budget. For a small business owner already juggling hiring, payroll, customers, and everything else, having someone who knows the health insurance market in your corner can be worth a lot.

3: How do I know my broker will recommend the right plan?

It’s fair to ask. When you’re working with traditional insurance options, it can sometimes feel like you’re choosing between carriers one at a time. CaliforniaChoice works differently.

Depending on where your business and employees are located, your group may have access to as many as seven participating health plans and dozens of coverage options through the CaliforniaChoice program. That can include statewide health plans such as Anthem Blue Cross, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, and UnitedHealthcare, along with regional health plans available in the areas they serve. With CaliforniaChoice, your employees have more opportunities to find coverage that fits their individual needs.

Your broker can help you understand those choices, but you and your employees ultimately select the coverage that’s right for you.

4: Isn’t a broker most useful in shopping plans, not after the sale?

Choosing a health plan is only the beginning. Once your coverage is in place, you and your employees may still have questions. A doctor could leave a health plan’s provider network. An employee may need help understanding their benefits. You may have questions during your next renewal. Open enrollment rolls around again. That’s when having a broker can really pay off.

Your broker can support you throughout the plan year, including helping with:

• Open enrollment: Your broker can help explain plan options to employees and make the enrollment process easier to navigate.
• Renewals: When it’s time to evaluate your coverage again, your broker can help you review your options and understand what’s changing.
• Employee questions: From provider networks to plan benefits, your broker can help employees find answers.
• Health insurance changes: Health care regulations, carrier policies, and plan details can change. Your broker can help you understand what those changes mean for your business.

The goal isn’t simply to sell you a health plan. It’s to build an ongoing relationship with someone who understands your benefits strategy and can help you manage it.

5: What else can a health insurance broker do for my business?

A good employee benefits broker can become an important resource for your business beyond the initial health insurance purchase. Health insurance comes with rules, deadlines, and regulatory requirements that can be difficult to keep up with when you’re busy running a company. Your broker can help you understand changes that may affect your business and point you toward resources and information you need to stay on top of your responsibilities.

For example, certain employers may have ACA reporting requirements depending on their size and circumstances. Not sure whether your business qualifies as an Applicable Large Employer (ALE) or what that means for your reporting obligations? That’s exactly the kind of question you can bring to your broker. We discuss this in more detail in another post, 5 Things Employers Need to Know About ACA Minimum Value Reporting. ADD LINK ONCE PUBLISHED Helping you understand things like this proves your broker’s real value.

What Makes CaliforniaChoice California Different

The value of working with a broker becomes even more apparent when you look at what CaliforniaChoice offers. CaliforniaChoice is designed to give small businesses more control over health insurance costs while giving employees more choice.

Control Your Contribution

With a Defined Contribution approach, you determine the amount or percentage your business contributes toward employees’ health coverage. Employees can then use that contribution toward the available health plan options. This gives you greater predictability over your benefits budget while giving employees more flexibility to choose coverage based on their individual needs.

Lock In Your Price for 12 Months

CaliforniaChoice also offers a 12-month price lock, helping protect your business from mid-year premium increases.If premiums change at your next renewal, you can re-evaluate your Defined Contribution for the year ahead rather than being surprised by a mid-year increase.

Give Employees More Choice

CaliforniaChoice offers a range of health plan options and provider networks designed to give employees choices at different price points. That means you’re not necessarily asking every employee to fit into the same health plan. You can give your employees more choice while keeping greater control over what your business contributes.

Your Broker Is More Than a Salesperson

The fact that CaliforniaChoice requires a broker isn’t meant to make buying health insurance more complicated. It’s designed to make the experience more personal. Instead of navigating group health insurance alone, you have someone who can help you compare options, explain the details, communicate with your employees, support open enrollment, and be there when questions come up.

If you’re considering employee health insurance or want to see whether CaliforniaChoice could be a good fit for your business, start with a conversation with a broker. If you don’t already have one, CaliforniaChoice makes it easy to find one.