What you and your Connecticut Oxford small business clients can expect in 2024
New and enhanced offerings in our 2024 Connecticut Oxford small business portfolio
Today’s rising costs, supply issues and labor shortages can deliver crushing blows to the small employer’s already tight bottom line. For decades, we’ve offered small businesses in the region smart options for health care benefits coverage, designed for affordability, to help lessen the economic squeeze. We would like to take the opportunity to remind you about new and enhanced offerings in our 2024 Connecticut Oxford small business (1–50) portfolio, designed to help today’s small business owners focus on managing costs in an increasingly challenging economic environment.
Making health care simpler
For clients and their employees:
- National network access with all plans
- Advantage Prescription Drug List included with all plans
- Broad pharmacy access (including CVS®, Walgreens® and many more)
- Nearly 20% of prior authorizations eliminated for most commercial, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid business
- Oxford Benefit Management (OBM) continues to offer small businesses a simplified, bundled dental and vision solution — with a basic life coverage option; simplified quoting and installation processes
- Consolidated invoicing for Oxford clients who are currently still receiving separate, monthly premium invoices for multiple medical products
For producers:
- Benefitter – This small group, multi-carrier sales enablement platform was built by and for producers; it’s available at no cost to help you simplify the quoting and enrollment process
- Communication Center in SAMx now includes functionality for alerting you to missing information on Level Funded pending submissions
- Employee Navigator – The direct application programming interface (API) connection allows producers to pull client and plan details into the platform to help fully automate the benefit enrollment process
Helping make health care more affordable
- $0 cost-share for preferred short and long-acting insulins, and preferred emergency use medications for in-the-moment critical care
- $0 cost-share for one adult routine vision exam per year on all fully insured plans
- $0 cost-share for 24/7 Virtual Visits; no deductible with a health savings account (HSA) plan
- Oxford Level Funded plans – many of the same benefits as traditional self-funding with limited risk; fixed monthly payments, exclusion from many state coverage mandates; lower health plan costs; potential year-end surplus refund; MineralTM offers support with HR and compliance issues
Making health care more supportive
- 5-year average small group single-digit rate increase: 6.8%
- Fully insured rate increase overall for 2024: 4.1%
- Consistent level funded historical trend
- Broad network access and stable product portfolio
- Emphasis on behavioral health solutions
Consumer offerings that may help encourage healthier living, and provide additional savings
- Care Cash® – Now available with all non-HSA fully insured plans. This pre-loaded debit card (annually: $200 Ind./$500 Family) helps subscribers pay for health care expenses; new funds added annually; balance carries over
- One Pass SelectTM – Included with fully insured plans, members have discounted access to thousands of gyms, with no long-term contracts or annual registration fees
- Real Appeal® – A lifestyle and weight management program that offers encouraging messaging, a Success Kit, online classes, digital support/tracking, personal Health Coach
- Sweat Equity® – Included with fully insured plans, members can earn up to $400 subscriber/$200 covered dependent in a plan year for meeting program’s cardio-based fitness requirements
- UnitedHealthcare Rewards – Members earn rewards for reaching daily fitness goals and one-time activities; $300 with fully insured plans and $1,000 with Oxford Level Funded plans
Broad network access and choice
The Oxford networks continue to be the stable foundation for our innovative plan designs and a driving force for transforming the health care delivery system to be simpler, more affordable and supportive. Choose fully insured and level funded plans from the following networks
- Freedom:
- 147,558 NY, NJ, CT providers
- 1,713,257 Choice Plus (national network) providers and 7,031 hospitals
- 67,000 pharmacies, including CVS®, Duane Reade™, Walgreens®, Walmart®
- Liberty:
- 145,200 NY, NJ, CT providers
- 1,436,907 Core (national network) providers and 5,500 hospitals
- 67,000 pharmacies, including CVS®, Duane Reade™, Walgreens®, Walmart®
Reminder about producer and client incentives ending Jan. 1
For producers:
- New sales bonus – $60 bonus for each enrolled employee in a new fully insured or level funded plan with up to 50 eligible employees
- Benefitter bonus – $250 bonus for each new, sold case on up to 5 cases; applies to new level funded medical cases with up to 50 eligible employees submitted through Benefitter with utilization of the electronic individual medical questionnaire feature
- Conversion bonus – $60 bonus for each employee converted from a fully insured medical plan to a level funded plan with 50 eligible employees
For clients:
- Level funded implementation credits – New and migration clients eligible for a $150 one-time implementation credit for each enrolled employee, up to $7,500; credit is applied to client’s billing statement(s)
More information
We are committed to helping employers, providers and members navigate the health care benefits system. With one of the largest datasets in the industry and a quality health care ecosystem under one roof, we’re working to help drive more informed decisions, better health outcomes, lower costs and healthier communities.
Please check our Connecticut-specific site and producer website for more details and other important information to support your 2024 client sales and support efforts. Contact your Oxford sales representative or our Client Services team at 1-888-201-4216 or oxfordgroupservices@uhc.com with questions.
Thank you for your continued business. We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season.