HHS Delays Requirement for Small Business Exchanges

Although small businesses were supposed to be able to select from multiple health plans offered on the health insurance exchanges beginning next year to comply with the employer coverage mandate of the health reform law, HHS announced it would allow employers to choose from just one option until 2015.

HHS will run 33 states' exchanges next year and is operating on a constricted timetable to roll out the online marketplaces that are a hallmark of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The agency granted a one-year extension to small businesses and exchanges in all states to meet the requirement to offer multiple plans on the small business health options program, commonly dubbed SHOP.

Employers with more than 50 workers must offer health coverage to full-time employees as part of the law, but employees may qualify for premium subsidies if the employer-sponsored plans are deemed unaffordable, or a little more than 9 percent of their income for individual coverage.

More Articles on Health Insurance Exchanges:

HHS on Track to Meet October Insurance Exchange Deadline, Officials Say
HHS Courts Skeptic States to With Premium Subsidies for Medicaid Expansion
CMS Outlines Demographics of the Uninsured

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