There are significant advantages for business owners to offer voluntary or supplementary programs. These employee benefit programs are a simple way of expanding benefits for your employees at no additional cost to the company. The employer does not pay for these benefits, but these types of products would not be available to employees as individuals or be significantly more expensive if not purchased through the employer group program.

One of the most well-known companies offering these types of products is AFLAC along with many other reputable companies. The types of products available as part of your Voluntary Benefits Program include:

• Accident
• Short-Term Disability
• Hospital Intensive Care
• Hospital Confinement Indemnity
• Lump Sum Cancer
• Lump Sum Critical Illness
• Specified Health Event
• Life
• Dental
• Vision

There are many benefits of your company adding a vision plan to your Group Benefits Plan, including:

• Healthier employees
  Research suggests a link between eye health and overall wellness. Better health translates into reduced employee absenteeism and increased worker productivity.
• Choice of plan designs
  Multiple plan designs are available that offer the best value and highest quality to fit your organization’s needs.

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Short Term Disability is a type of insurance that pays a percentage of an employee’s salary for a specified amount of time, if they are ill or injured, and cannot perform the duties of their job. Coverage usually starts anywhere from one to 14 days after your employee suffers a condition that leaves them unable to work. Many times, employees are required to use sick days before short term disability kicks in, if it’s an illness that keeps them out of work for an extended period of time. This is why there is usually a different policy for short term disability for sickness versus an injury.

A short term disability policy can be an employer or employee paid benefit (voluntary benefit). Generally, though, short term disability coverage is employer-paid. Companies do have a choice of having employees pay for coverage, with certain tax implications. Group coverage for short term disability can be attained through an insurer or through a self-funded plan set aside by the employer directly.

Long Term Disability is a type of insurance that is generally one of the most important parts of a group benefits package. While some companies opt to fund a short term disability or don’t even offer one at all, many more employers do offer a long term disability program funded through a third party administrator such as a disability insurer.

According to Unum, a major provider of disability insurance, 3 out of every 10 workers between the ages of 25 and 65 will experience an accident or illness that keeps them out of work for 3 months or longer, with nearly 60% of these injuries occurring off the job. If an employee is hurt off the job, worker’s compensation will not cover them. When an employee cannot work for an extended period of time, a long term disability plan can help cover a portion of the employee’s salary. Long term disability usually kicks in after a short term disability policy has run out.

Offering dental benefits is instrumental to helping employers attract and retain top talent. According to one study, 70 percent of respondents said that dental benefits coverage is somewhat or very important.

We offer a comprehensive portfolio of dental products loaded with choices and functional plan designs to suit every business. The following are our most popular dental insurance programs:

• Aetna
• Assurant
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield
• Delta Dental
• Guardian
• Health Alliance Plan
• Met Life

Group medical insurance coverage is purchased by an employer and is offered to eligible employees of the company (and often to the employees’ family members) as a benefit of working for that company. The majority of Americans have group health insurance coverage through their employer or the employer of a family member.

Our experts can help you determine which plan provides the best value for your company among the following popular health insurance providers:

• Aetna
• Priority Health
• Health Plus
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield
• Blue Care Network
• Health Alliance Plan (HAP)
• Humana
• United Health Care