From One Rigid Regional Plan to Nationwide Employee Choice — for a Multi-State Mortgage Team

The situation: one regional plan, for a team that isn’t in one region

The brokerage had grown to seven on the policy and was carrying a single Harvard Pilgrim plan with a roughly $5,000 deductible — a regional plan for a team spread across multiple states. Two problems came with that: employees outside the home region were working off a network built for somewhere else, and everyone had the same one plan, whether they wanted richer coverage or a lean high-deductible plan paired with an HSA.

The owner was explicit about what he wanted: at least a high-deductible and a low-deductible option for his people, on a network that actually works for a distributed team — without the cost running away from him.

The work: PrestigePEO + UnitedHealthcare’s nationwide network, with real plan choice

Benefitra moved the brokerage onto PrestigePEO running UnitedHealthcare plans — UHC’s nationwide Open Access network, the same network Harvard Pilgrim itself leans on for out-of-area coverage. Instead of one plan for everyone, the firm could now offer a menu:

• A low-deductible plan for employees who want richer coverage
• A high-deductible / HSA plan for those who’d rather bank the difference — including the lowest-cost Open Access HSA option
• One nationwide network — so an employee in Colorado or Florida is in-network the same as one at headquarters

Prestige also brought a benefits-enrollment wizard that walks each employee through choosing their own plan, dental, vision and ancillaries — and a dedicated benefits coordinator employees can call directly.

The analysis: nationwide UHC, priced against the fully-insured renewal

Benefitra put the UnitedHealthcare options side by side with the firm’s fully-insured renewal alternatives, on the actual 7-employee census. The UHC plans came in competitive on cost and ahead on flexibility:

Figures from the brokerage’s renewal and UnitedHealthcare plan documents (7 employees / 14 members, effective 4/1). Monthly total-premium basis; employees elect their own plan from the menu.

Why PrestigePEO + UnitedHealthcare won

The honest trade-offs

Moving to a PEO means joining Prestige’s platform for benefits and HR — a change in administration, and a participation process where benefit-eligible employees enroll or formally waive. And because employees now choose their own plan, the employer’s exact cost depends on what people elect rather than a single fixed number. For a small, multi-state mortgage team that wanted choice and a nationwide network, those were features, not costs — the whole point was to stop forcing one regional plan onto a distributed workforce.

Outcome: choice, a nationwide network, and competitive cost

The brokerage went from a single regional ~$5,000-deductible plan to a choice of UnitedHealthcare plans on a nationwide network through PrestigePEO — a low-deductible option for those who want it, a high-deductible / HSA option for those who don’t, and a network that’s in-network wherever an employee happens to live — all priced competitively with the fully-insured renewal it replaced.

One regional plan → nationwide UHC · employee choice · competitive cost

For a team that doesn’t all live in the same state, the upgrade wasn’t a number on a renewal — it was finally giving every employee a plan that works where they are, and a say in which one they take.