Stride / Gusto Partnership

Hello Gusto people, and welcome to Stride Health!

If you have been referred to Stride, it likely means you are:

• An independent 1099 contractor, or
• A part-time W2 employee
• Someone who is losing employer coverage and has to choose between a marketplace plan or COBRA

If this applies to you, great! We're happy to have you. Stride Health is your partner to help you enroll in health coverage as well as dental, vision and life insurance. You can go to https://gusto.stridehealth.com/where you can create a free account and start shopping!

Dental, Vision and Life Insurance

You can shop and enroll in dental, vision and life insurance all year long. Simply go to https://gusto.stridehealth.com/and scroll down to see dental, vision and life insurance banners.

Health Insurance

Open Enrollment is from November 1 to January 15. That's the time that anyone who is not eligible for coverage through an employer, a family member, Medicaid, VA or Tricare can enroll in health insurance.

Outside of Open Enrollment, individuals who experience a Qualifying Life Event in the last 60 days can enroll as well. The most common life events are moving to a new zip code, losing employer coverage or Medicaid, and a change in your household due to marriage, divorce or birth of a child.

Plan selection and premiums depend on where you live, your tax household size and your household income. So if you go to https://gusto.stridehealth.com/health and begin entering your information we'll show you all the plans in your area. We recommend adding your doctors and prescriptions so that the search results will show you which plans accept them, and how much it will cost.

Marketplace vs. COBRA

When an individual is losing their employer coverage, in some cases the employer will offer to keep them in their health plan through COBRA for several months. The employer will no longer be contributing to their premiums, so the individual will be responsible for the entire premium amount on their own.

If an individual declines COBRA, this could be a qualifying event that allows them to enroll in the marketplace and possibly qualify for financial assistance. This is important: it is necessary to decline/waive a COBRA offer in order to qualify for a marketplace plan with financial assistance. Also, it is not possible to terminate COBRA before it expires and apply for financial assistance for a marketplace plan.

If this is your case and you wish to enroll in a marketplace plan, we recommend submitting an application on Stride before the first of the month, and once it's approved you may go ahead and decline/waive the COBRA offer before the first of the month.

Any questions?

We got you covered! There is a widget on the lower-right of our page that looks like this if you want to enter a question but you can also:

• Find great articles in our Help Center
• Send an email to gusto@stridehealth.com 
• Give us a call at (855) 713-2695. We are open from 9 am to 5 pm Pacific time

Looking forward to working with you!

The Stride Team