Connecticut's health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, has selected HealthPass and bswift to provide services and technology for a choice of health insurance options to small businesses throughout the state.
With the service providers in place, the Connecticut HIX will be able to launch as planned in October its small business health options program (SHOP) to offer small businesses and their employees a selection of competing plans, Access Health CT saidWednesday in a news release.
Connecticut is moving forward, despite the fact that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last month delayed implementation of SHOP features from 2014 until 2015.
Under the employee choice and premium aggregation provisions of the federal SHOP program, small business employees can select health plans from a menu instead of being enrolled in one pre-selected by their employer.
However, the 16 states, including Connecticut, and District of Columbia that are standing up their own state-based exchanges would likely roll out their SHOP programs fully. The 33 states that are defaulting to the federally-facilitated exchange will have to wait until 2015.
Connecticut said it wanted to set the standard for state-based health exchanges on SHOP establishment. Access Health CT's selection of the HealthPass-bswift solution will allow small business employers and employees in Connecticut to have a range of choice and affordability of health insurance plans, said Kevin Counihan, CEO of Access Health CT.
Access Health CT's SHOP "defined contribution" or "employee choice" approach will allow employers to offer plans from multiple insurers to their employees but receive a single bill and write a single check to the exchange.
"We know one size doesn't always fit all and that individual employees have different needs. Our SHOP products offer broad carrier choice while allowing employers to budget and fix their costs for health insurance," he said.
Small businesses who purchase health insurance for their employees through Access Health CT may qualify for small business tax credits.
HealthPass, based in New York and a subsidiary of the Northeast Business Group on Health, is a not-for-profit, commercial health insurance exchange offering small businesses in the region health care coverage. It also offers its platform of exchange services to operators of both public and private health insurance exchanges.
Bswift, based in Chicago, provides software and services to streamline benefits, HR and payroll administration.