Our company currently contracts with a PEO and receives all welfare benefits through them. We would like to cut the cord and build all programs in-house, however, are having trouble finding an insurer who is willing to quote us due to lack of claims experience. (which the PEO indicates they cannot provide.) We have about 270 work-at-home employees, most of whom are full time and a large majority are in California and Washington.

I would like to find a carrier who can provide nationwide coverage and is willing to quote us fairly quickly. We are targeting a "go-live" date of 1/1/03.

Anyone have any suggestions of carriers or TPA's who might fit the bill?

You state that the benefits are "through" the PEO and not that the benefits were provided by the PEO.

Who was the entity (insurer) who actually provided the benefits? What do they say?
What does the Master Policy state and to whom was it issued?
What does your Dept of Insurance say?
In some states the refusal to provide claims experience for the purpose of getting a competitive quotation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice governed by either Insurance law or Consumer law, What does the governing state law say?

Is there any possible way that the claims experience for your group of employees can be ascertained through the PEO? Usually companies are identified separately in a PEO for tracking purposes.

You could try all the national carriers and ask for a manual quote. Additionally, you may want to try Great West, as you would have a pretty good chance of getting a specific and an aggregate quote. Great West would self-fund your program, but this would allow you to get claim reports on a monthly basis.

Generally, you should be able to obtain proposals from most of your larger insurance carriers. Not having experience will present a problem in that insurers will tend to be more conservative when providing premiums and therefore will increase your premiums versus providing good claims experience. However, if your demographics are good chances are they will be willing to work with you.

If you're interested, I can provide you with the help you need to obtain quotes and negotiate the pricing down for your health plan. I can also provide to you website benefits at no additional cost shoud you do business with us. With so many employees off site, it's a great way to provide information!!