New Guidance On SHOP Online Enrollment Requirements

Implementing Health Reform. Although the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance marketplaces have received far more attention, the ACA also created Small Business Health Options (SHOP) marketplaces, where small businesses and their employees can purchase insurance coverage. The SHOP marketplaces were intended to be operated through an online portal like the individual marketplaces. Small employers would go online and identify a qualified health plan or set plans in which their employees could then enroll in online for coverage. Although the SHOP program was launched in 2014, during the first year the federal online portal was not operational. Small employers and their employees instead enrolled directly with insurers, although the SHOP exchange determined eligibility for small employer tax credits. The Federal SHOP (FF-SHOP) opened an online portal in 2015 and in some states allowed employees the choice of multiple plans at a single metal level (horizontal choice). In 2016 horizontal choice became available in all states in the FF-SHOP. For 2017, the FF-SHOP will make available vertical choice, through which employees will be able to select plans from a single insurer at more than one metal level in states that do not oppose it. Four states, however—Idaho, Hawaii, Oregon, and Vermont—have not yet offered online enrollment in their state-based SHOP marketplace. In these states the employer continues to apply for an eligibility determination through th...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage 1332 waivers SHOP enrollment SHOP exchanges SHOP marketplace Source Type: blogs