Gravie

You decide the amount you’d like to give employees and Gravie takes care of getting this money to them. In some cases, we can apply this money directly to your employees’ monthly payments so they’ll only be responsible for the balance each month. In other cases, we will deposit it directly into your employees’ bank accounts each month. (Please note that employees can choose to take this money in cash to use on something other than health insurance. We also take care of this and can walk you through how this works.)

Yes. Gravie requires that employers provide the money as taxable income. (The only time this isn’t true is when the money is used to purchase a group health plan. This money is considered pre-tax.)

We can complete a financial analysis of your current group plan compared to several options available in the individual market. This analysis will give you a better idea of what your cost savings will be, and show you some of the options your employees could have.

While it can be helpful to find a comparable plan in the individual market, it’s ultimately up to your employees to choose a plan that meets their needs — whether that’s a similar plan, a less expensive plan, or more expensive plan.

Yes. During the implementation process , your account manager will help you define an employer dollar strategy. This includes deciding how much money to give each employee for health insurance, and how much money you’d like to give for other benefits like dental, vision, life, supplemental medical, etc.

You’ll be assigned a dedicated account manager. Your account manager is your go-to contact at all times. They’ll review the Gravie onboarding guide with you, help you define an employer dollar strategy, let you know exactly what we need from you (including an employee roster), and work with you to create a communication strategy for employees.

Yes. After you sign a contract with Gravie, your account manager will work with you to create a communication strategy, based on your employees’ needs and communication style. We use a variety of communication tactics and will figure out which ones make the most sense for you. We introduce Gravie to your employees, explain what they need to do to get health insurance, and answer all questions along the way. We also remind your employees about important deadlines and steps they need to take.

First your employees will be loaded into Gravie’s system with the amount of money you’re providing them. Employees can then sign up for Gravie using our intuitive website or they can call us and we’ll walk them through the entire process.

Every employee who chooses benefits with Gravie also gets Gravie Care. Gravie Care comes with a team of friendly, licensed advisors. This means employees are never alone in managing benefits. Whether your employees need help finding a doctor or dentist, can’t figure out why a claim was denied, and much more, employees are always a phone call, email or chat away from someone who’s on their side, willing to go the extra mile. That’s what Gravie Care is all about.

Gravie advisors. When your employees choose their benefits through Gravie, they also get Gravie Care. Gravie Care comes with a team of licensed, expert advisors that your employees can call or email with any questions related to their benefits — at any time during the year. Gravie advisors are ready to answer any question, big or small. (Meet them in this video.)

Direct them to Gravie! That’s what Gravie Care is for. Our advisors are here to answer any questions related to your employees’ benefits. This includes things like checking how much a prescription will cost, understanding a bill or claim, finding a new doctor, and much more.

Employers should not help employees pick plans and should instead direct them to Gravie with questions. We’ll communicate with your employees about important enrollment dates and send them reminders to make sure they choose their plan on time.

After your employees have enrolled in a plan, Gravie Care kicks in. Gravie advisors are your employees’ go-to resource for all benefits questions.

No. Our goal is to become appointed with all insurance companies in each state. If we’re not currently appointed with an insurance company, individuals can still purchase plans from this insurance company through Gravie if the company sells their plans through the public marketplace.

We also offer dental insurance, vision insurance, health savings accounts, life insurance, and supplemental medical insurance. Plus we’re always looking to add new products to our marketplace.

Yes. Gravie offers HSA accounts through HSA Bank, but you can also choose to keep your current HSA provider. Employees must choose a high deductible health plan in order to contribute money to an HSA account. With Gravie and HSA Bank, we determine if your employees are eligible.

No! Most employers don’t realize this, but group plans are month-to-month contracts. You should be able to cancel your group plan at any time during the year.

Yes. Some employers find the cost savings of Gravie too significant to wait until their annual renewal, while others decide to wait to avoid restarting their employees’ deductibles.

No. You can work with your broker and with Gravie. In fact, we have partnerships with some brokers.

Gravie is highly focused on and specialized in helping individuals choose their benefits. We’ve built our product and services around making the benefits market less daunting and easier to access with the use of sophisticated technology and expert advisors.

Your broker is most likely only an expert in group insurance. A traditional group broker simply can’t work with each of your employees, understand their needs as individual buyers, and offer the same personalized tools and support that Gravie does.

In a lot of cases, your broker will still be involved, as many traditional brokers offer ancillary services, like short-term disability, that Gravie doesn’t.

We also partner with a number of brokers. In these partnerships, the broker has been able to maintain a relationship with their client, while offering them access to Gravie’s services.

Yes, Gravie is compliant with the ACA! Gravie works with some of the best benefit lawyers in the country to ensure our customers are compliant with all applicable rules and regulations. Our process allows employers to make post-tax wages available to employees to either apply towards the purchase of individual health insurance plans or to take the equivalent amount in cash. Offering this choice is key to making the program compliant with the ACA, as specifically identified in IRS Notice 2013-54 (Section II.B).

Recently, the United States Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury jointly issued “FAQs about Affordable Care Act Implementation (Part XXII).” These FAQs refer to reimbursement arrangements that are fundamentally different from Gravie’s model. In fact, the regulations referenced in the FAQs are the same ones that we based our processes on.

Yes! We work with employers of all sizes. For employers with 50 or more employees, we recommend you offer employees a minimum essential coverage (MEC) group plan in addition to Gravie to reduce or eliminate your penalty. In fact, Gravie administers a MEC plan for most of our employers with 50 or more employees.

To understand the “Employer Shared Responsibility Payments,” refer to this blog post. To understand how offering a MEC plan affects these payments, refer to this blog post.

We are based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We also have employees in Illinois and Indiana.

Gravie launched in November 2013 around the same time as the first open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act.

• Abir Sen (Co-founder and CEO)
• Jill Prevost (Co-founder & Head of Marketing & Consumer Experience)
• Marek Ciolko (Co-founder & Head of Operations)

Aberdare Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Brightstone, Split Rock Partners, and Securian.

When you’re offered a job, what you really care about is your salary. Everything else (health insurance, 401k, etc.) is…gravy. We didn’t want to go with the traditional “benefits” name; that’s stale, boring and soon to be dead. So we spiced it up a bit and came up with a consumer-friendly play on the word gravy. Gravy.com was already taken so we went with the next best thing that sounded equally as catchy — gravie.com.

Awesome! To get started, get in touch with us in one of the following ways:

1. Fill out this form and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours.
2. Email info@gravie.com
3. Call 844.540.8701