It’s Time to Start Quoting Group Health Insurance

By: Lori Liles – New Business Consultant

Now that you’ve asked all of your qualifying questions, and have your answers, you should be ready to collect the information you need to start running a Quote for your Group.

To follow is a list of information that you’ll need in order to run a Blue Cross Group quote:

• What date does the policy need to start?
  • Make sure you leave yourself and your Group enough time to get the quote to them, do the presentation, let them decide what policy/ or policies they’d like to offer, complete the paperwork with them, and get all of their tax documentation together that Blue Cross will require.  
  • The entire process can take a few weeks to a month, depending on how long it takes the client that you’re working with to get you all the information you need. Make sure you leave yourself some time, so you’re not scrambling at the end, and keep this in mind when choosing an effective date.
  • If the Group already has a policy with a different Carrier, the effective date will need to line up with their Renewal. You need to keep this in mind as well when requesting an effective date.
  • Blue Cross will not start processing any paperwork until everything is in, and complete.

• Make sure you are quoting in the correct market segment. There is nothing worse than thinking you have a small group only to find out at submission the group should actually be Mid-Market. 
  • How many total employees (Full Time, Part Time, Seasonal Etc.) did the group average in the preceding calendar year.
    • Small Group – 1 – 50 total employees
    • Mid-Market – 51-150 total employees (group is still considered mid- market even if less than 50 employee enroll)

• What is the Legal Name of the Group? Should match the Wage & Tax Statement.
  • Include the DBA if it applies.

• What is the Legal Address of the Group?
  • Make sure that the Company’s Headquarters is located in Illinois.

• What County is the Group in?
• What Industry is the Group in?
  • You’ll need this information to obtain the SIC Code.
    • It’s important to get an accurate SIC Code for a Mid-Market Group (51+ employees).
    • For a Small Group (50 employees, or less) it’s sufficient to use 7389 for the SIC Code, if you’re unsure what the correct one is.

• What is the contact phone number for the Group? 
  • This isn’t necessary to quote a Small Group, but for a Mid-Market Group the phone number is required. 

• Obtain the Employee information for all employees that need to be quoted. 
  • First and last names of all employees, and dependents that will be quoted (required for Mid-Market)
  • Birthdates of all employees and dependents.
  • Genders for all employees and their dependents. 
  • State for each employee.
  • If it is a Mid-Market Group, the state and zip code for each employee will be required. 

• Make sure you include your Producer Information, so your information is attached to the quote. 
  • Producer Name and/or Agency Name if this is going to be under your Agency. 
  • Producer Writing Number.
  • Producer Phone Number.
  • Producer Email Address.

Quoting your Groups can either be done by your CSR, or myself. It’s important for you to focus on selling, rather than with time consuming tasks, such as quoting.

You can submit a quote through our website by clicking the link below:

Or if you prefer to complete an Excel quote request form you can download a copy at the link below.

You can also request an Excel quote request form to be emailed to you from your CSR, or I can email it to you as well. 

When you receive your quote back, you’ll notice that there are Composite Rates listed, and Age Rates listed in the BCBS Small Group Quote (Mid-Market Quotes are Composite Rated Only). 

• BCBS Small Group Age Rating – Premiums are based on each quoted person’s individual age as well as the location of the group.
• BCBS Small Group Composite Rating – Premiums are based on a calculation of the ages of all people (employee, spouse & dependents) who are quoted as well as the location of the group. Composite rating consists of four different categories:

• • Employee Only 
  • Employee + Spouse 
  • Employee + Child
  • Employee + Family

Please note that if you have chosen to go with Composite Rates, rather than Age Rates for your BCBS Small Group Quote, and the demographics for your enrollment are different from what you quoted, this will change the composite rates.  

A Mid-Market Quote is an initial quote only and not to be considered final rates.  For firmer rates a group can do a Stage 2.  Contact your CSR or myself for more details on Stage 2 requirements.  A full submission is still required for final rates.

 Hopefully, you’ll find this information helpful in quoting your Groups. The next step will be presenting the quote to your client. 

If you need assistance, or have any questions with quoting a Group, please reach out to me or your CSR and we’ll more than happy to assist you.

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Lori Liles can be reached at lori@midwestga.com or 847-631-6621