PeopleKeep’s Latest QSEHRA Report Unveils How Small Employers Are Offering Competitive Health Benefits Without a Group Policy

SALT LAKE CITY, February 13, 2024 (Newswire.com) - PeopleKeep, the leader in personalized benefits for small and midsize organizations, released its seventh annual report on the qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangement (QSEHRA).

An increasing number of small employers have turned to the QSEHRA to offer an affordable, flexible health benefit that meets their organizations' unique needs and budgets. This defined contribution benefit, made specifically for employers with fewer than 50 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs), comes without the expensive premiums, annual rate hikes, or restrictive minimum participation requirements of group health plans.

The QSEHRA allows employers to offer tax-free reimbursements for employees' health insurance premiums and more than 200 other healthcare expenses. PeopleKeep’s report and infographic feature data on how PeopleKeep customers and their employees utilized this formal, IRS-approved health benefit. 

Key findings from the report include the following:

• Organizations offered an average monthly allowance of $431 in 2023. This is a 4.6% increase from 2022. 
• Organizations employing one to four employees offer employees 2.8% more than those employing  20 to 49 employees.
• The most popular states for PeopleKeep QSEHRA customers were California (11%), Florida (6%), Texas (6%), Colorado (6%), North Carolina (4%), and New York (4%). 
• Roughly 42% of all reimbursements in 2023 were for premiums, which averaged $249 per reimbursement. This is less than the average benchmark premium of $477 in 2023. 

As part of the report, PeopleKeep also surveyed a segment of its QSEHRA customers to highlight why they chose a QSEHRA. If not for the QSEHRA, many employees would go without health benefits. Of the survey respondents, 77% of employers didn’t offer a health benefit before the QSEHRA. 

Findings from PeopleKeep's QSEHRA customer survey:

• The greatest percentage of employers (41%) said they offered a QSEHRA to do right by their employees. 
• Respondents also chose a QSEHRA because of its flexibility (25%) and cost savings (17%) compared to other types of health benefits. 
• A third of survey respondents (33.6%) worked in nonprofits or religious organizations, which often have tight budgets.

“America’s smaller employers want to do the right thing and help their employees with healthcare costs but need options other than employer-sponsored or funded group health insurance plans, which tend to be too expensive and complex,” said Victoria Glickman Hodgkins, CEO of PeopleKeep. “For seven years in a row, our annual QSEHRA report has proven that a QSEHRA benefit can solve this problem.” 

As the first organization to offer a cloud-based QSEHRA administration platform, PeopleKeep has reported on how employers use the QSEHRA since its launch in 2017. The report utilizes data gathered from PeopleKeep’s QSEHRA customers from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023.

View the full PeopleKeep 2024 QSEHRA Annual Report here.

Source: PeopleKeep