Your team is a map, not an office.
- Remote employees in other Washington rating areas and other states
- Hiring that arrives in waves tied to contracts, funding or a new project
- Founders, equity holders and contractors whose eligibility isn't settled by title
- Field staff at project sites and office staff at headquarters
- Bonuses, commissions and other variable pay
Geography decides network fit. Washington has nine rating areas, and a carrier's national name doesn't mean each of its plans has a national network. Before you pick a plan, take every home ZIP code and ask four questions: is there a network there, does routine care work, how are prescriptions filled, and is telehealth included?
Status comes next: ownership alone doesn't decide whether a founder is eligible, and each contractor needs an answer from your advisers on whether they are a common-law employee.
Illustrative: a 35-person engineering firm with 28 staff in King County, four in Spokane and three remote employees in Oregon and Colorado. We would check networks for every home ZIP code, then compare one group plan for everyone with a group plan for Washington staff plus state-based ICHRA classes for the rest.
Four levers for a distributed team.
Pick the network by home ZIP code.
Headquarters is the wrong place to start.
We quote Premera Blue Cross, Regence BlueShield, Asuris Northwest Health, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare, and the right carrier for a team clustered in one county can be wrong for one spread across the state. Send home ZIP codes for everyone through the employee census page.
Use ICHRA classes when one network can't reach everyone.
An allowance travels where a network doesn't.
With an ICHRA, the firm sets a monthly allowance and each employee buys individual coverage where they live, and must be enrolled in it. Classes can follow state or rating area as well as full-time, part-time, salaried and hourly status, with allowances that vary by class and rise with age up to 3 to 1. If some classes keep the group plan, a minimum class size applies, 10 employees for firms under 100, but a class defined by a whole state is exempt. Notice is due at least 90 days before the plan year, and affordability uses its own test, so run the employee cost test first.
Judge HSA plans and level funding on the numbers.
A young-looking census isn't a strategy.
Age and job title don't establish that an HSA plan or level funding is right. A level-funded plan is priced on your own group through underwriting, with one fixed monthly payment covering a claims fund, stop-loss insurance and administration. Underwriting can raise the price or decline the group, renewals follow your own claims, and a surplus refund is possible, not promised. We quote it with UnitedHealthcare, Nationwide, Angle Health and Cigna; read the contract questions before comparing rates. On an HSA plan, a higher deductible raises the cash employees need on hand.
Count variable pay in income protection.
Bonus-heavy pay needs a careful definition of earnings.
For disability and life, check how covered earnings treat bonuses and commissions and where benefit caps sit, and offer dependent tiers on dental and vision. Our life and disability page lays out the options.
Tie the benefits calendar to the hiring plan.
Before the next hiring wave: map the team.
List each employee's home state and ZIP code, plus where planned hires are likely to live. That list drives network checks, rating areas and any ICHRA classes.
Choose the structure, then shop carriers.
Decide between one group plan, a group plan with ICHRA classes, or an ICHRA alone before comparing carriers. Level-funded quotes need underwriting time.
Watch the 50 line.
If this year's hiring could bring your average to 50 or more full-time employees plus FTEs, the ACA's large-employer rules on offers, affordability and Forms 1094-C and 1095-C apply next year. Commonly owned companies count together. Check with the FTE calculator.
Enroll by video, finish online.
Live video sessions and one-on-one calls reach remote staff, and elections close in Employee Navigator. We train your administrator to add hires and terminations and handle the carrier changes.
Recheck at every new state.
The first hire in a new state is a trigger: confirm network access there before the offer goes out, and note the state for next year's class design.
Two assumptions that break distributed plans.
A national name means a national network.
A carrier's brand can be national while a given plan's network is regional. Check the plan, not the logo, against each home ZIP code.
A young team means level funding wins.
Underwriting prices your group's actual risk. Get real quotes before assuming.
What founders and operations leads ask us.
Can an employee in another state join our Washington plan?
Possibly, but check before anyone promises it. Confirm the plan has a network where that person lives, including primary care and a pharmacy nearby. If not, compare a group plan for Washington staff with an ICHRA class for that state; a class defined by a whole state is exempt from the minimum class size.
We're growing fast. What changes past 50 employees?
Two counts matter. Under the ACA, you're an applicable large employer when the prior calendar year averaged 50 or more full-time employees plus FTEs, full-time meaning 130 hours of service a month. Washington's small-group definition, 1 to 50 employees averaged over the previous calendar year with affiliated companies counted as one, is a separate test. Our ACA compliance checklist covers what follows.
We have 12 people. Is it too early for benefits?
Not if the budget supports it. We work with employers from 5 to 500 employees, and federal law doesn't require an employer under 50 to offer coverage; Washington adds no employer mandate. A QSEHRA or ICHRA can come first, though a QSEHRA can't sit beside group dental, vision or a health FSA.
Official references.
IRS: Publication 969 on HSAs, applicable large employer status and common-law employees. HealthCare.gov: individual coverage HRAs. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Send a census with home ZIP codes.
We'll check every location against the networks we quote and show whether one plan, an ICHRA or a mix fits. You don't need a current plan to start.