Brian M. Kalish

For a private exchange to be successful, it needs to offer a full service solution in a box, says David Holton, vice president of private exchange business development at HealthPlan Services. His Tampa, Fla.-based company’s My Consumer Link is an individual exchanges for group brokers to offer. These brokers, Holton says, don’t want to walk away from the money of the individual sales, but don’t have the time to commit to it.

As private exchange technology providers are acquired, some brokers question what happens downstream to firms they partnered with. Along with the acquisitions, some brokers are not yet seeing a return on investment from their exchange, so what are their long-term plans?

The federal health insurance marketplace may have issued subsides to persons not eligible to receive them during the first open enrollment period, a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General has found.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton a $202 million contract to be the marketplace system integrator, or general contractor, which includes the federally-facilitated health insurance marketplace, parts of the state-run marketplaces and more.

Despite potential savings offered, voluntary programs that provide discounts on products, services and tickets to employees are rarely used and seeing almost no growth year-over-year.

Working in partnership with USI and GoHealth, the payroll firm’s platform will serve populations with employer-provided benefits as well as those who must purchase through public exchanges.

For the first time, brokers and agents will be eligible to receive continuing education credits through the training, which is required to eligible to sell on the federal marketplace.

Three Republican senators have sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expressing concern for the “lack of oversight for more than $1 billion in federal grants” given to state-based marketplaces.

State-based marketplaces were overall quite successful in retaining enrollees, however, a large number of consumers shopping within the marketplace during 2015 open enrollment decided to switch plans based on the price of services offered.

There are three types of brokers: the transactional broker, the Zenefits-style broker and the new school premier broker — but soon only one of them will be successful.

Waiting to see how private exchanges play out is no longer a business strategy; and to succeed, brokers must change their business practices, speaker at EBA/EBN Private Healthcare Exchanges conference says.

Satisfied with increased plan engagement, affordable options and a chance to focus on wellness through Aon's exchange platform, the national retailer is not looking back.

As a value-added reseller, Apprize Technology sells and services to brokers three different benefit administration platforms, what many call a private exchange— bswift, benefitsCONNECT and Infiniti HR. Gary Wert, Apprize’s president, discusses why Apprize and other resellers may have to turn away business in the fourth quarter and why some brokers aren’t building their own exchange, but rather using a reseller.

As they struggle to become financially stable, state-based health insurance marketplaces are lagging behind the federally-facilitated marketplace and are likely to continue to do so in the near future.

With 24 Republican senators up for reelection in November 2016, not to mention the presidential election, there is so much set to change for both public and private exchanges.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that more than 77,000 brokers and agents assisted with enrollments on the federally-facilitated marketplace in year two open enrollment, up 46% from the year prior.

Companies are shifting their attention to health coverage for their pre-65 retiree population and exploring the opportunities public exchanges provide this population, now that the Supreme Court has upheld subsides on the federally-facilitated health insurance marketplace.

As employers search for ways to trim health care costs, advisers are increasingly exploring the use of data to steer plan design.

In the constantly changing health insurance business, the only way to stay ahead of the competition is to reinvest in your company, your employees and your technology. That’s what Sparks, Md.-based Kelly & Associates Insurance Group has been doing. What can smaller firms learn from Kelly and why is the continual reinvestment so important?

More than half of the nation approves of the Supreme Court ruling in King v. Burwell that subsides on the federal health care exchange can be legally issued to consumers.