Having been a small business owner who has had to shop, I would have loved the "CostCo" quality model applied. I know that would be really difficult for a startup with the state of our healthcare, but to me it would mean getting in the largest insurance pool possible with above average customer friendly choices making it easy to say yes. That also implies a very few options to chose from, and maybe ideally one (that gets you to the larger pool).

BTW costco quality also doesn't mean the absolute highest quality, just above average solid options plus using the volume to drive the affordability.

Are you describing HMOs? You have fewer available plans in exchange for cost savings with a large pool.

Not specifically. HMOs are more bringing in the services together with the insurance function - larger pools than many small business plans may be a side effect. But "regular" insurance should also be able to create larger pools - indeed some states specifically form small business health insurance pools to help make that community get better healthcare plans.

My guess is you would do it like most employers do, provide a small menu of options, have a default choice, and if you don't make a choice by a due date, enroll the employee in the default choice.