Zane Benefits Helps Brokers Offer Health Reimbursement Arrangements

(PRWEB) January 09, 2013

Zane Benefits, the leading provider of health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) administration software for small and medium-sized businesses, is helping insurance agents educate their clients on HRAs. HRAs, also referred to as defined contribution health benefits, allow employers to offer a business expense account for healthcare where the employer reimburses employees for out-of-pocket health insurance and medical expenses 100% tax-free.

According to Rick Lindquist, President of Zane Benefits, “the 2014 provisions contain massive incentives for small businesses with less than 50 employees to cancel health insurance coverage in favor of HRAs. Group brokers will need to start offering an HRA / individual insurance solution, or they will risk losing employer clients to other brokers.”

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes provisions to lower individual health insurance premiums for Americans with household incomes below 400% of the federal poverty line, or FPL. Experts argue that the premium tax subsidies available on the individual market will cause many small businesses to drop employer-sponsored coverage and switch to defined contribution health benefits (via HRAs).

As Zane Benefits does not sell health insurance, it is in a unique position to partner with group health insurance brokers in 2013.

“Change is hard. But, at Zane Benefits, we are committed to helping brokers adapt,” Lindquist says. “We view 2014 as a huge business opportunity for any successful health insurance broker ready for the change.”

Zane Benefits’ solution, ZaneHRA, allows an employer to name its price. Rather than paying the high costs to provide a specific group health plan (a "defined benefit"), employers instead fix their costs by establishing a monthly HRA dollar amount (a “defined contribution”) that employees choose how to spend.

Zane Benefits’ Broker Partner Program allows health insurance brokers to distribute a custom version of ZaneHRA. The customizable options include branding of the platform, pricing and revenue sharing. Additionally, the broker can have special “Get a Quote” links within the platform forward to a website or quote engine of their choice.

“We’ve designed the ZaneHRA Broker Partner Program with one goal in mind: help a broker retain individual relationships with each employee,” says Lindquist. “The program gives a broker everything they need to market the ZaneHRA solution and maintain the individual health insurance business on an on-going basis. We support the sale, implementation and on-going customer service for the HRA on the broker's behalf.”

For brokers interested in partnering with Zane Benefits, the first step is to create a free online partner account at http://www.zaneaffiliates.com. The account will give the broker a unique Zane Affiliate ID and immediately allow the broker to set up a custom ZaneHRA marketing and sales website.

Additional information on the program is available at http://www.zanebenefits.com.

About Zane Benefits, Inc.

Zane Benefits was founded in 2006 to provide a revolutionized SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) administration platform ("ZaneHRA") for Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs). The flagship software allows employers to offer a "business expense account" for healthcare. Zane Benefits does not sell health insurance. For more information about ZaneHRA, see http://www.zanebenefits.com.

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