How a 28-Person Marketing Agency Escaped Rising Health Premiums Using Online Comparison Platforms

How Rising Premiums Turned a Fast-Growing Agency's Benefit Program Into a Liability

GoodGrowth Marketing grew from 8 people to 28 in three years. Revenue climbed, clients multiplied, and recruiting became a daily task. The leadership wanted one steady benefit that would help hire and retain talent. The standard approach was an employer-sponsored group health plan. That plan looked attractive until renewal season arrived and premiums jumped 18 percent.

Numbers mattered. The agency was contributing roughly $700 per employee per month toward premiums. With 28 employees that cost the company about $235,200 per year. Renewals projected that number to exceed $277,000 the following year if the plan stayed the same. Cash flow was health insurance provider networks tightening and employees were frustrated by high deductibles and shrinking provider networks.

Management could have accepted the hit or made stubborn cost cuts. Instead they explored alternatives: level-funded plans, defined contribution models, and using online marketplaces for individual coverage. The goal was pragmatic: reduce employer cost, maintain meaningful coverage for employees, and keep administrative friction low.

Why Traditional Group Plans Were Failing Their Team

At first glance the group plan was simple. Group premiums pooled risk across staff and carriers marketed it as "comprehensive." The problem surfaced in three places:

Unpredictable renewals: A few high-cost claims and a changing rating area turned a predictable budget line into a monthly surprise. One-size-fits-all limits choice: Employees who lived out of the carrier's narrow network felt trapped. Parents with specific pediatric needs were unhappy. Administrative drag: HR spent 8 hours each week wrestling with carrier paperwork, COBRA, and eligibility questions.

Each of these problems hit small employers harder than large corporations. No risk pool cushion. No dedicated HR benefit team. And little leverage with carriers because the shop was small.

Choosing a Flexible Solution: Combining an ICHRA, Level-Funded Option, and Online Exchanges

The agency adopted a blended approach instead of a single "replacement" product. The decision included three pieces:

Offer an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) so employees could buy individual or family plans that fit their needs. Keep a small stop-loss protected level-funded plan as an option for employees who preferred a group product. Use online comparison platforms to let employees shop efficiently and for HR to compare prices and carriers quickly.

This combination treated benefits like a menu rather than a single plated meal. Employees could pick what fit their lives. The employer controlled total spend by setting HRA allowances and keeping a predictable monthly outlay for level-funding if used.

Rolling Out a New Benefits Model: The 120-Day Playbook

Implementation followed a clear, timed playbook. The project ran 120 days from decision to first payroll deduction under the new model.

Day 1-15: Data and Design

Collect employee census: ages, zip codes, current coverage, dependents, and monthly payroll. Decide contribution level: GoodGrowth chose $500 per employee per month ICHRA allowance for single coverage and $1,200 for family coverage tiers. Model costs: run three scenarios - conservative, expected, and aggressive - to estimate employer outlay and employee take-home change.

Day 16-45: Vendor Selection and Compliance Check

Select an enrollment platform that integrates with payroll and offers carrier comparisons across ACA-compliant individual plans. Engage a benefits attorney or broker to validate ICHRA design, ensure ERISA and ACA compliance, and prepare offer letters. Negotiate a level-funded plan with a stop-loss threshold set to protect catastrophic claims above $125,000 per year.

Day 46-75: Employee Education and Shop Period

Hold small-group walk-throughs and one-on-one sessions. Use real example scenarios - young single employee, family with two children, spouse with existing employer coverage - to show impact. Open a 30-day shopping window on the comparison platform. Employees could preview plans, see actual premiums, and estimate subsidies like premium tax credits. Provide a short FAQ packet and a glossary of key terms - premium, deductible, OOP max, in-network - to lower the cognitive load.

Day 76-120: Enrollment, Payroll Integration, and Launch

Finalize enrollments. For employees choosing ICHRA, confirm proof of individual plan coverage and set up monthly employer reimbursements through payroll. For those on the level-funded plan, finalize carrier enrollment and begin premium payments. Measure baseline metrics: administrative hours, employee satisfaction, projected spend for the next 12 months.

From $235K in Premiums to $183K in Predictable Benefits: Measurable Outcomes in Year One

Results can be boiled down to hard numbers and softer morale improvements. Here is what GoodGrowth saw in the first 12 months:

Metric Before After Annual employer contributions to health $235,200 $183,456 Percent of employees with individualized plans via marketplace 0% 71% (20 of 28) Employees remaining on group level-funded plan 100% 29% (8 of 28) Average admin time per week on benefits 8 hours 2 hours Employee satisfaction score (1-5) 2.7 4.1

How did they achieve those numbers? A few specifics:

Employer savings of roughly 22 percent came from moving to defined contribution for most employees and shrinking the fixed group risk pool exposure. The online comparison platform allowed employees to find plans with narrower networks but lower premiums or broader PPOs where they needed specialty care. That choice reduced complaints about network mismatches. Administrative hours fell because employees handled shopping and carrier questions on the platform, and payroll processed a single HRA reimbursement line rather than multiple carrier invoices.

5 Practical Benefits Lessons Small Employers Routinely Overlook

These lessons came from what worked and what nearly derailed the transition.

Model employee-level impact before announcing: Use real census data to show someone in each life stage how the change affects them. Without concrete examples, rumors will spread and derail enrollment. Set predictable employer caps: Define monthly ICHRA allowances by employee class. Uncapped "we will do our best" promises blow budgets. Don’t ignore ACA offer tests: If you switch to an HRA model, check whether your door-to-door offer count still meets the employer mandate thresholds. Small errors here create penalties. Use pilots for the skeptical cohort: Let 4-6 volunteers pilot the new option for one cycle. A quiet success story convinces the middle of the pack faster than top-down mandates. Design communications like sales collateral: Short videos, one-pagers, and side-by-side cost examples win more hearts than long legal memos.

How Your 5-50 Employee Business Can Test This Without Blowing Up Benefits

Treat this as an experiment with clear guardrails. Here is a practical checklist and timeline you can execute in 90 to 120 days.

Quick Checklist

Gather census data: names, ages, zip codes, current coverage, dependents. Create three budget scenarios: status quo, partial ICHRA, full ICHRA. Choose a shopping platform that supports proof of individual coverage uploads and integrates with payroll. Engage a benefits lawyer to validate compliance and prepare offer documents. Run a 30-day voluntary pilot with 5 employees representing different life stages. Measure outcomes: net employer spend, enrollments, admin hours, satisfaction.

Vendor and Tech Recommendations

Comparison platforms that show real-time plan rates in your employees' zip codes and support side-by-side comparisons. Payroll providers with an HRA reimbursement feature or API integrations to automate monthly payments. Enrollment support that can provide live agents during open shop windows to coach employees through subsidies and premium tax credit eligibility.

Example Timeline (90 Days)

Week 1-2: Data gathering and modeling. Week 3-4: Pick platform and legal review; design HRA allowances by class. Week 5-8: Pilot and communications; adjust allowances from pilot feedback. Week 9-12: Full shop, enroll, payroll setup, launch.

Think of this process like remodeling a kitchen in a rental property. You want better functionality but you do not want to tear out the plumbing and be left with no stove for months. You design the changes, test cabinetry and appliances in a small corner, then roll out the full remodel during a controlled window. That way, you can cook meals the whole time.

When This Model Isn’t Right

There are situations where the defined contribution and individual plan route is not the right fit:

When your workforce is highly transient and relies on the same narrow provider networks for critical care. When you operate in multiple states with complex local regulations that make individual enrollments administratively heavy. When the workforce strongly prefers a traditional group plan and the company values uniform coverage as a recruiting advantage.

If any of these apply, consider level-funded plans with stronger stop-loss protection or association plans that increase buying power. The core lesson is to match design to culture and cash flow, not to follow models because they are popular.

Final Pragmatic Advice

For small employers the biggest risk is not choosing the "wrong" product; it is doing nothing. Rising premiums compound and hide in the budget until they force painful cuts. Online comparison platforms do not eliminate complexity, but they do convert opaque pricing into clear choices. Pair those platforms with a well-designed HRA and targeted communications, and you can move from reactive renewal negotiations to a predictable, employee-friendly model.

Start with a small pilot, model outcomes in detail, and keep legal counsel in the loop. When done right, the shift can be like moving from a fixed menu to a cafeteria line - employees eat what fits them, and you control the tray budget.

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Pub: 01 Feb 2026 18:48 UTC

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