Our Plan Options

Brazos Marketplace: Your Path to Smarter Group Health Solutions

At Brazos Marketplace, we understand that one-size-fits-all health insurance is a thing of the past. That’s why we’ve built a robust marketplace designed to empower businesses of all sizes – from small enterprises to large corporations – with flexible, cost-effective group health solutions. We connect employers and brokers with a diverse array of plan options, moving beyond traditional models to deliver greater control, transparency, and the potential for long-term savings.

Here’s a look at some of the innovative plan options available through Brazos Marketplace:

• Administrative Services Only (ASO) Plans: Ideal for larger employers, ASO arrangements allow you to self-fund your health benefits while outsourcing the administrative complexities to a third-party administrator (TPA). You pay for claims as they occur, but the TPA handles everything from claims processing and network access to member services and regulatory compliance. This offers significant flexibility in plan design, greater transparency into healthcare spending, and the potential for substantial savings by cutting out the risk charges and profit margins embedded in fully insured premiums.
• Level-Funded Plans: Discover the best of both worlds. Level-funded plans offer the budget predictability of fully insured plans with the potential for cost savings typically associated with self-funding. You pay a consistent monthly amount that covers administrative fees, expected claims, and stop-loss insurance. If your claims come in lower than expected at the end of the year, you could receive a refund, putting money back into your business. These plans offer enhanced transparency and detailed claims data, allowing for smarter benefit management.
• Self-Funded Plans: For businesses ready to take more control, self-funded plans offer maximum flexibility and cost transparency. Instead of paying fixed premiums to an insurance carrier, you directly fund employee healthcare claims as they occur. This allows you to customize your plan design to precisely fit your workforce’s needs, gain deeper insights into healthcare spending, and potentially avoid state premium taxes. To mitigate risk, self-funded plans are often paired with stop-loss insurance, protecting your business from unexpectedly high claims.
• Group Captive Plans: Join forces with other like-minded businesses to form your own insurance company. Group captives allow companies to pool their resources, share risk, and gain significant control over their health benefits. By taking ownership of your insurance, you can design highly customized plans, increase transparency in spending, and potentially realize substantial refunds from unused claims funds. It’s a powerful way to mitigate volatility and align your health plan with long-term financial goals.
• Medical Expense Reimbursement (MERP/MEO) Plans: Often paired with self-funded or high-deductible health plans, MERP/MEO plans allow employers to reimburse employees for out-of-pocket medical expenses, such as deductibles, co-pays, and prescriptions, on a tax-advantaged basis. This strategy gives employers direct control over a portion of their healthcare spend, offering flexibility in how much they contribute and what expenses are covered, while enhancing employee benefits without adding to premium costs.
• Reference-Based Pricing (RBP) Plans: Move beyond traditional network contracts and gain unprecedented control over healthcare costs. RBP plans pay providers based on a transparent benchmark, typically a multiple of Medicare rates, rather than inflated billed charges. This approach significantly reduces healthcare expenditures, eliminates arbitrary pricing variations, and provides clarity on costs. While empowering employers with significant savings, Brazos Marketplace supports seamless implementation to ensure positive employee experiences.

Brazos Marketplace is committed to helping you navigate the complexities of group health benefits. We provide the tools, expertise, and diverse plan options needed to create a health benefits strategy that truly works for your business and your employees, driving both financial stability and employee well-being.