I have two companies with a fully funded health plan. This past year, the companies no longer have common ownership and will have to obtain separate health plans. Is there any way we can keep the companies under one health plan even though there is no common ownership. The firms are owned by two brothers each having 100% ownership in their respective company and separate tax ID numbers.

I have one insurer who is underwriting the groups together while other carriers tell me it's not permissible. If it makes a difference, the larger firm is handling all of the administrative tasks for both companies.

Any help is appreciated. Please reference your answer.

Thank you.

If it truly is going to be two separate plans, with two different owners and two different tax ids, you're probably going to be SOL. Carriers are going to view this as an association plan. Therefore, if the experience starts going downhill, one of the companies may decide to leave the arrangement and leave the carrier left with some very undesirable claims it has to pay off.

You can always try and plead your case to the carrier, however, I'm not sure how much luck you're going to have simply because it's not your sales rep making the call. I'm sure he or she would love to write the business, however, underwriting will not permit it. I would do a side-by-side showing all the things the company is going to have in common and go from there.