The Importance of
Professional Associations

We get two or three requests a week from small business owners who are interested in finding affordable health insurance. They often find a very high cost individual policy is the only option that their insurance agent offers. One possible answer is to join an association. What kind of association should you join? The simple answer is one that provides you with more benefits you'll use than those benefits cost you and your business. Possible associations when you are looking for health insurance include your local merchant association, your Chamber of Commerce, a trade association, your alumni association or a professional organization.

There are some associations built entirely around providing benefits to small businesses. This is good for you because they use the power of their membership numbers to negotiate rates that can be significantly reduced from the costs you'd find with an individual policy.

The Small Business Benefit Association (http://www.sbba.com/) $59 annual membership, $9.95/$14.95 per month) concentrates on providing benefits in the areas of:

• Insurance
• Communications
• Financial support
• Professional services
• Education and training

The American Benefits Association, (http://www.abbcinc.com/) provides a network of over 300,000 physicians, 11,000 health facilities and 3,500 hospitals which will provide members with a discount of 20% on services. That's right, it's a price break, no paperwork to fill out, no claims to file. And since their membership's first year cost is $0.00, you don't risk any money by joining. Additional benefits include holistic health care, which isn't always covered by standard insurance, and pharmacy benefits in 90% of the pharmacies in the United States. The pharmacy benefits are also discounts from list price of @ 20% for name brands and as much as 50% for generic drugs.

The Home Office Association of America (http://www.hoaa.com/ ) also offers a range of benefits to its members. The basic membership costs $49 per year, $79 for Canadian members and $100 for international members. Health insurance is administered by Albert H. Wohlers insurance administrators and I have had personal experience with this group. They're a class act and offer major medical, short term medical, long term medical, disability, group term life insurance and dental insurance. I've been covered by group term life insurance through Wohlers for 24 years and have found that they work hard to keep rates affordable, switching insurance underwriters if necessary but making certain that they're always top rated. The MBA program offers additional benefits for an additional $34 per year to reduce the costs of eyewear by up to 75% and prescription drugs for up to 50%. There's also an option that allows you to choice a chiropractic benefit. An additional benefit that I found attractive is their ability to set you up with a national credit collection agency starting at $20 for an overdue account. They also offer UPS shipping discounts and merchant card accounts.

Bottom line? Associations promise some great benefits that small business owners and employees want and need. Plus, they'll handle the administrative details so you can look good. Let them handle the administration and you'll save a lot of time compared to assembling your benefit package yourself. It's something that you'll find of real value.