PeopleKeep’s latest QSEHRA Report unveils how small employers are offering competitive health benefits without a group policy

Nearly 77% of employers surveyed didn't offer a health benefit before the QSEHRA. Organizations offered their employees an average monthly QSEHRA allowance of $431 in 2023. This is a 4.6% increase from 2022.

SALT LAKE CITY – Feb. 13, 2024 – 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 businesses and nonprofits have turned to the QSEHRA to offer an affordable, flexible health benefit that meets their organizations' unique needs and budgets. This defined contribution benefit, which is made specifically for employers with fewer than 50 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs), doesn’t have the expensive premiums, annual rate hikes, or restrictive minimum participation requirements of traditional group health insurance plans.

The QSEHRA allows small businesses to offer tax-free reimbursements to employees for 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 the QSEHRA as a 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.
• The smallest organizations (those with one to four employees) offer employees 2.8% more than the largest organizations (those with 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 had an average reimbursement amount of $249. 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 small businesses and nonprofits chose a QSEHRA over other types of health benefits. 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 our 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.
• We asked survey respondents to share their industry, and 33.6% were nonprofit 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 their benefits annually since the launch of the benefit 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.

About PeopleKeep

PeopleKeep helps organizations thrive by taking care of their employees with hassle-free benefits. As the leader in personalized benefits, PeopleKeep has learned what the thousands of employers who use our software want: a seamless employee experience, easy-to-use software, and automated compliance. Visit www.peoplekeep.com for more information.

Contacts

pr@peoplekeep.com