Unable to meet its own Oct. 1 deadline, HHS has officially given states a one-year reprieve from a health law requirement that health insurance exchanges for small groups allow employers to choose multiple plans to offer employees.
States are obligated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to host an online health insurance marketplace for individuals and another for small groups, known as small business health options programs, or SHOPs. SHOPs originally were required by Oct. 1 this year to allow small employers to select either one health plan for the whole company or pick multiple plans at a certain benefit level to offer employees to choose for themselves.
HHS has said its version of a SHOP exchange will be online by the Oct. 1 deadline for at least 33 states that decided against building their own, but HHS will not be able to offer multiple plan options for enrollees by that date.
As a result, the agency proposed in April and made official last week a delay to the multiple-option requirement for SHOPs until 2015, although SHOPs still must allow employers to choose at least one plan by Oct. 1 this year and employers of 50 or more full-time equivalent employees still must offer workers health insurance next year or pay fines.
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States are obligated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to host an online health insurance marketplace for individuals and another for small groups, known as small business health options programs, or SHOPs. SHOPs originally were required by Oct. 1 this year to allow small employers to select either one health plan for the whole company or pick multiple plans at a certain benefit level to offer employees to choose for themselves.
HHS has said its version of a SHOP exchange will be online by the Oct. 1 deadline for at least 33 states that decided against building their own, but HHS will not be able to offer multiple plan options for enrollees by that date.
As a result, the agency proposed in April and made official last week a delay to the multiple-option requirement for SHOPs until 2015, although SHOPs still must allow employers to choose at least one plan by Oct. 1 this year and employers of 50 or more full-time equivalent employees still must offer workers health insurance next year or pay fines.
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