Your Group Health Reimbursement Arrangement Broker
A health reimbursement arrangement gives employers a way to fund employee healthcare with tax-free dollars while maintaining tighter control of the budget. Instead of absorbing whatever a carrier charges at renewal, you decide how much to contribute, and employees put those funds toward coverage or out-of-pocket costs.
The trade-off is complexity, since each type of HRA carries its own rules on who qualifies and how it has to be funded to stay compliant.
Victor Insures You is a group health reimbursement arrangement broker that helps employers choose the right structure, set it up correctly, and keep it compliant. We match the arrangement to your budget and your workforce, and we handle the compliance details that make or break it.
Two Ways to Put a Group HRA to Work
Employers generally use a group HRA in one of two ways.
The first is an Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA). Instead of sponsoring a group plan, you set a monthly allowance, employees buy their own individual coverage, and you reimburse them tax-free. The defined-contribution approach turns an unpredictable renewal into a fixed budget line and lets you set allowance amounts by employee class (e.g., full-time, part-time, seasonal) or by location.
For an Applicable Large Employer, an ICHRA can satisfy the employer mandate as long as the allowance makes coverage affordable.
The second direction is a supplemental HRA that layers on top of an existing group plan. An integrated HRA reimburses employees for out-of-pocket costs under that plan, while an excepted benefit HRA reimburses a capped amount, up to $2,200 per employee in 2026, toward expenses like deductibles, copays, and certain dental or vision premiums.
Plan Design and Compliance Are Where HRAs Succeed or Fail
The value of a group HRA depends entirely on the details. Set an ICHRA allowance too low, and you fail the affordability test that keeps you compliant. Offer an ICHRA and an excepted benefit HRA to the same class of employees, and the arrangement can lose its tax advantages.
As a group HRA broker, Victor Insures You handles both the design and compliance aspects. We model your costs against your current plan, structure allowances and employee classes to hold up under the affordability rules, and select and negotiate with the administrator who runs the plan.
When an administrator’s fees or service terms do not serve the client, we press for better. We recommend the structure that fits your organization, even when a lower-fee arrangement means less for us.
Managing the Program Through Employee Navigator
Clients also gain access to Employee Navigator, a benefits administration platform that simplifies enrollment and keeps employee data organized in one place. For an HR team running an HRA alongside group ancillary lines, it reduces the manual work of tracking eligibility and processing enrollment changes across every benefit.
Paired with the HRA strategy Victor Insures You builds, it gives your team a straightforward way to run the program day to day.
Compare a Group HRA Against Your Current Coverage
If your group plan renews at higher rates each year and you want a model with a predictable budget, a health reimbursement arrangement may be worth evaluating.
Victor Insures You will compare an HRA against your current coverage, identify the structure that fits your workforce, and handle the compliance and setup from there.
Contact Victor Insures You to see the numbers for your organization.
Can an employee use an ICHRA if they are covered under a spouse's employer plan?
No. To participate in an ICHRA, an employee must be enrolled in a qualifying individual health plan or Medicare. Coverage through a spouse’s group plan does not make an employee eligible to use the ICHRA. An employee in that situation would need to enroll in their own individual coverage to draw on the allowance, or they can decline the ICHRA and stay on the spouse’s plan.
How does offering an HRA affect an employee's eligibility for a premium tax credit?
For an ICHRA, it comes down to affordability. When the allowance is considered affordable under the federal standard, the employee cannot also claim a premium tax credit on the marketplace. If the allowance is not affordable, the employee may opt out of the ICHRA and claim the credit instead. Victor Insures You factors this into how allowances are set, so employees are positioned well, and your organization stays compliant.
Do employees keep unused HRA funds or take them along when they leave?
HRAs are funded and owned by the employer, so unused amounts are not paid out in cash, and the employer decides whether a balance carries over to the next plan year or resets. When an employee leaves, they generally forfeit the HRA. With an ICHRA, the individual insurance policy itself belongs to the employee and stays in place, though the employer reimbursement ends with employment.
Turn to us for expert guidance on group health insurance, benefits administration, and comprehensive business insurance, and let us exceed your expectations.
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