BALTIMORE – The Maryland Health Care Commission has launched an online portal intended to help small businesses comparison-shop for health insurance plans for their employees.
The portal, called Virtual Compare, allows side-by-side comparisons of products from five participating health plans and includes information on pricing estimates for premiums, out-of-pocket costs to employees and federal tax credits available under the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act.
While the portal may resemble what some state health insurance exchanges could look like in the coming years as required under the ACA, the Maryland insurance website is the result of a state law passed in 2009, pre-dating the federal law, that was targeted toward helping small businesses effectively shop for and manage their health benefits.
"Virtual Compare is an important piece of our commitment to transparency, assuring that information about the quality and cost of health plans and providers is available to the public," said Marilyn Moon, chairperson of the healthcare commission, in a statement.
While visitors to the website can't buy policies through the portal, they can search through a database of insurance brokers throughout the state who can assist business owners with setting up employee health plans.
"Small business owners typically want to continue to work with their insurance brokers or utilize brokers or find brokers that can assist them," said John Emge, government relations manager for Benefitfocus, a healthcare and benefits software company that provided the technology for the Virtual Compare portal and hosts and manages the site. "In this portal there is a strong broker element that allows brokers to go on the site and register. Consumers on the website can put in their zip code and get a list of brokers in their area and filter them by what carriers they represent."
More than 700 brokers have registered on Virtual Compare, and that number is growing daily.
Insurers offering products on the portal include Aetna, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Coventry Health Care, Kaiser Permanente and UnitedHealthcare.
For CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the decision to offer product information on Virtual Compare is a good way for the carrier to disseminate information on its small group offerings. CareFirst spokesman Michael P. Sullivan said the insurer views it as "a good tool to provide employers and employees with valuable information on health plan offerings."
Getting broad participation from carriers for the project was essential in order for the portal to be a comprehensive resource for small employers seeking health plans, and Emge credits the approach taken by MHCC for the successful launch.
"The way Maryland approached this was in a way that we are encouraging other states to do as they look to set up their exchanges," said Emge. "MHCC engaged the carriers very early in the process and discussed what their plans and objectives were for Virtual Compare. A critical step for the state exchanges and the bodies that are formed is to follow this approach, to realize that the carriers are providing the product, and involving them in the process early is important since they are the best resource for providing information."
While the Virtual Compare portal is likely to draw comparisons to coming state exchanges, both Sullivan and Emge noted it only scratches the surface of the capabilities necessary for a state exchange.
The portal resembles an exchange "in the sense that it provides an online capability for employers to compare comparable offerings from multiple carriers," Sullivan said. "There's still much work to be done before exchanges come online."