Exchanges

The Department of Labor on Tuesday unveiled its much-anticipated rule proposal extending a fiduciary standard to thousands of brokers and advisers providing investment advice to clients on retirement accounts – but details on enforcement were still forthcoming.

Seattle-based Array Health says it has formed a partnership with HealthEquity providing personal health accounts on Array’s e-commerce platform – Array Spectrum.

While several reasons have been suggested for a plateau effect in public exchange enrollment, it may all come down to dollars and cents, as well as carrots and sticks.

Of the people who purchased health insurance through a public exchange in 2014, 9% more federal exchange participants re-enrolled compared to the state-run marketplaces.

Time was when the word marketplace conjured up images of village locals peddling their wares to eager residents, or tourists looking to sample native foods or purchase artistic creations from an open-air market nestled within a quaint town.

Enrollment in private health care exchanges hit 6 million for the 2015 plan year, according to Accenture — doubling the 3 million figure from 2014. Most of the growth is in the mid-market segment.

Some universities that provide health insurance to their students are stopping the practice, as they say the Affordable Care Act’s minimal essential health benefits requirements have led to unsustainable cost increases. Those that remain are turning to their brokers to determine the best way to continue offering coverage to their students.

In as bold a move as its strongest blend, coffee powerhouse Starbucks late Monday upped the ante to its college degree program the company first unveiled last summer.

States should not step in and establish their own exchanges if subsides are ruled illegal on the federal health care marketplace, a recent national study found, but industry experts say that is not the national consensus and point to the wording of poll questions to support the discrepancy.

Voluntary business is a well-known tool for brokers to increase their revenue while offering new products. But many employers are hesitant to add these products because of additional administrative burdens they can require. Enter the private health care exchange, says Carlos Ferrera, COO of Solstice Benefits and the Solstice Marketplace. With an exchange, the burden is gone, he says.