Nonprofit.
No shareholders, no earnings call. Margin stays in the plan instead of leaving as profit.
For California restaurant owners
Your renewal is a blank check. Don't sign it yet.
Most restaurant operators have never been shown the nonprofit trusts, and almost none have been shown what a hospital is actually charging them. Before you sign an 8, 10, or 12 percent increase, let us put real numbers next to it. Free. We get everything we need from your controller or HR.
01 / THE RENEWAL
Ask your broker for the claims and the math.
Every year the renewal shows up with a number on it. Eight percent. Ten. Twelve or more. When you ask why, you get a paragraph about “medical trend.” What you don't get is the math.
At your size that isn't a rounding error, and it isn't unknowable. Your own people's claims are what drives your rate. The data exists. Somebody is holding it. You are entitled to see it — and if your broker can't put it in front of you, that tells you something about who they're actually working for.
Until you see it, you're signing a blank check.
THE RENEWAL TICKET
LAST YEAR $362,500
THIS YEAR $402,375 (+11%)
THE MATH not provided
SIGN HERE
Illustration. Your numbers will differ.
Lane A · From 10 employees. No ceiling.
There's a nonprofit way to buy group health insurance. Almost nobody tells restaurants about it.
A nonprofit health and welfare trust is a pool of employers in the same industry who buy and run health coverage together. There are no shareholders to pay. The trust exists to serve the businesses in it, not to hit a quarterly number.
California has had industry trusts like these for decades, mostly in agriculture and food. They get placed quietly, through a small number of brokers, and almost never in front of restaurants. That's the gap we're closing.
There's no size you outgrow. The trusts write groups of ten and groups of a thousand.
Built for one industry.
Plans shaped around hourly crews, turnover, seasonal swings, and bilingual staff, not a generic small-group product.
Real service.
A person who picks up the phone, in English or Spanish, and field reps who come to you.
Lane A · From 10 employees. No ceiling.
A nonprofit trust that's probably a better deal than what you're about to sign.
We can quote it on its own paper, side by side with your current plan.
Western Growers Health
Nonprofit trust · Founded 1957 · Irvine, California · Small group through large group
- Western Growers Assurance Trust, doing business as Western Growers Health, was created in 1957 to close the gap between agriculture and health care. Nearly 70 years later it is one of the largest providers of health benefits to California's food and agriculture employers.
- Anthem Prudent Buyer network in California. Employees living or traveling outside California and Arizona are covered through the First Health network for non-emergency care.
- $0 copay telemedicine: a board-certified U.S. physician from a phone, tablet, or laptop, prescriptions sent to the pharmacy of your choice, mental health counseling included.
- $0 copay on tier-1 generic prescriptions at any Costco or Walmart pharmacy.
- Medical, dental, and vision, across a wide plan menu — from $0-deductible designs through HSA-qualified high-deductible plans, for small and large groups.
- Cedar Health Centers: $0 copay for most services, same-day and walk-in appointments, extended hours, bilingual, pediatric care, access to a network of more than 5,000 providers.
- Mexico Select cross-border network in Tijuana, Mexicali, Los Algodones, and San Luis, included with all plans — for employees whose families are across the border.
- Bilingual customer service, enrollment meetings, and printed materials. A dedicated account manager. Claims processed in California, at service centers in Irvine and Fresno.
- Eligibility, billing, and COBRA administration handled by the trust, plus regulatory and compliance updates from its legal team.
Coverage is available to Western Growers members; membership is part of the enrollment process and we handle it.
1957the year the trust was founded
$0what a quote costs
2ways to attack it
Lane B · 50 employees and up · no ceiling
Here's the part almost nobody will explain to you.
When a hospital bills your health plan $75,000 for a surgery, that number isn't attached to anything real. It's a list price. The hospital made it up, and it made it up knowing insurance companies negotiate off list.
So your PPO negotiates. They knock 40 percent off and call it a discount. Your plan pays $45,000 and everyone tells you that you won.
Medicare would pay somewhere near $16,000 for that same surgery, at that same hospital, from that same surgeon. Not because Medicare is cheap — because Medicare actually calculates what the procedure costs and publishes the math.
Cost-Plus pricing pays the hospital a set percentage above that published cost instead of a percentage off an invented list price. Same hospital, same surgeon, same surgery. The plan pays roughly $22,000 instead of $45,000.
The difference doesn't go to a carrier. It stays in your plan, which means it stays in your business.
Illustrative figures based on published industry examples, not a quote. Your actual numbers depend on your plan, your hospitals, and your claims.1
Billed$75,000
PPO discount$45,000
Cost-Plus$22,000
The two questions every owner asks next
“What happens to my employee when the hospital doesn't like the price?”
Most of the time nothing, because most providers accept a benchmarked rate without argument. When one pushes back, your employee doesn't handle it. A member advocate does — they take the call, deal with the hospital's billing office, and keep working it until it's resolved. Legal support is part of the program.
Your people get told how this works before the plan starts, in English and in Spanish, so nobody is surprised by a letter. That education step is most of why these plans succeed or fail, and it's the part that gets skipped when someone sets one of these up without knowing what they're doing.
“Do my people have to change doctors?”
No. There's no narrow network to move into. Your employees keep going where they go. We check your staff's current doctors and hospitals before we quote anything, so you know what you're looking at.
Are we the right size for this?
Cost-Plus starts making sense around 50 employees and it doesn't stop. We service groups with several thousand employees directly, and the programs we place them on carry more than 250,000 covered lives.
So a 300-person restaurant group isn't an edge case here, and neither is a 900-person one. Size doesn't change whether this works. It changes how much is sitting on the table.
250,000+covered lives on the programs we place
Several thousandemployees in groups we service directly
Why your broker hasn't brought this up
It's more work than re-papering a renewal, it usually pays a broker the same or less, and it requires explaining something the carrier will never help them explain. None of that is a character flaw. It's just how the incentives run.
We built our practice around it anyway, because above 50 employees it's the single biggest lever an operator has, and it gets bigger every person you add.
If you have 50 or more employees, this is worth one conversation even if you never move.
Bring your controller or CFO. This section is built to survive that conversation.
06 / ASK TWICE
When you show this to your broker, they'll say they can do it too.
They might be right. The trusts are real and any appointed broker can quote them.
So ask two questions.
First: why didn't you? They've had your renewal on their desk every year. The nonprofit trusts have existed since before most of us were born. Ask what changed this week.
Second: show me the math. Not a brochure, not a promise to look into it. Your people, your renewal, real numbers, this month.
If they come back with something that beats ours, take it. You just got a better deal out of a broker who needed a push, and you didn't have to change a thing. That's a win, and we'll tell you so.
We just don't think you should have needed us to get it.
07 / ARM'S LENGTH
If neither one is your best answer, we'll tell you.
IAG is an independent brokerage. We aren't owned by the trusts and we aren't captive to anyone. Sometimes the nonprofit trust wins. Sometimes Cost-Plus wins. Sometimes neither does, and we've put groups on Kaiser and said so out loud.
Whichever way it goes, you see the math. That's the whole point.
We're a Southern California brokerage that services groups from ten employees to several thousand. You will not be handed off to a call center.
08 / HOW IT WORKS
Here's all we'd ask.
Fifteen minutes, or just the form. Tell us your renewal month, headcount, and current carrier.
We get the rest from your manager or HR. Census, current plan summary, renewal letter. You don't do the paperwork.
Hard dollars, side by side. Your renewal next to what we can actually do, for your actual people. Then you decide. Stay or move, no hard feelings.
We won't bother you again until we have hard dollars in front of you. Fair?
Best time to start is 90 to 120 days before your renewal date. If yours is closer than that, say so and we'll move faster.
09 / BUILT FOR RESTAURANTS
Coverage that fits a kitchen, not a cubicle.
Hourly and salaried.
Different plan tiers for the line and for management, on one bill.
Turnover handled.
The trust's eligibility team runs new hires, waiting periods, and terminations, not your GM.
Bilingual, start to finish.
Enrollment meetings, materials, and the service line in English and Spanish.
Forty locations, one invoice.
Multi-unit groups run as one plan, one bill, one renewal — whether that's four restaurants or forty.
Doctor between shifts.
$0 telemedicine means a cook sees a physician from the back hallway instead of losing a shift to urgent care.2
ACA, handled.
Over 50 full-time-equivalents you're an applicable large employer, which means measurement periods for variable-hour staff and 1094/1095 filings every year. Restaurants get this wrong more than any other industry, because the hours move. We help with both.
10 / QUESTIONS
Questions owners actually ask.
Is this insurance from a nonprofit?
The trusts are nonprofit. IAG, the broker, is a licensed for-profit brokerage and earns a commission if your group enrolls. “Nonprofit Restaurant Trust” is the name of this campaign, not an insurer.
We're a restaurant. Why would an agriculture trust cover us?
Because it's a food-industry trust, and it has covered food businesses for decades. Eligibility runs through membership, which is part of enrollment and which we handle.
What does it cost to look?
Nothing. If your group enrolls, the trust or carrier pays IAG a commission, which we disclose to you in writing.
We have 30 employees. Is that too small?
Not for the trusts — they write groups from ten people up. Cost-Plus isn't for you yet; it starts making sense around fifty. We'll tell you that rather than sell you something that doesn't fit.
We're under 50. Why can't we see our claims?
Because in California, small-group rates come from a formula — your employees' ages, your location, the plan you picked — not from what your people actually spent. Your own experience barely moves the number, which is why shopping your claims is pointless at that size and shopping the pool is everything. Almost nobody shows restaurants the nonprofit pools.
We have 700 employees across 22 locations. Are we too big for this?
No, and you're not an unusual size for us either. Neither lane has a ceiling. The trusts write large groups, we service groups with several thousand employees directly, and the programs behind Cost-Plus carry more than 250,000 covered lives. At your size the dollars are bigger and the plan design work gets more interesting. That's most of what changes.
We already have a broker.
A quote doesn't change that. Nothing moves unless you decide to move, and then it's one signature.
Will my people have to change doctors?
Depends on which way you go. We check your staff's current doctors and hospitals against the network before we quote, so there are no surprises.
Is Cost-Plus risky?
It's a self-funded plan, so your costs move with your claims instead of being fixed in advance, and stop-loss coverage caps how far they can move. It's the right answer for a lot of 50-plus restaurant groups and the wrong answer for some. We'll show you which one you are before you decide anything.
Our renewal isn't for months.
Good. That's the best time to look. We'll come back to you when the timing is right.
11 / GET THE NUMBERS
Before you sign it, take a look.
Two minutes here, or call or text 949-919-4460. We reply within one business day. No list selling, no drip campaign.
Your information stays with IAG. No list selling.
Plan notes
- 1 Cost-Plus figures are illustrative published-industry examples, not a quote.
- 2 Western Growers Health plans; does not apply to EPO Mexico-only plans.