Dive Brief:
- Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, has announced the creation of a private health insurance exchange for owners of businesses with two or more employees. The exchange will allow employers and employees health tools and insurance coverage through Aetna.
- The plans will be available in 18 states with plans providing a defined or flat, pre-tax contribution. The retailer told CNBC that 70% of its business customers have five or fewer employees. Sam's serves about 600,000 small businesses at its 644 stores nationwide.
- In 2015 and 2016, provisions of the Affordable Care Act begin requiring employers with 100 or more full-time workers, then 50 to 99 workers, to offer insurance to employees. Sam's Club is banking on the fact that customers will turn to them, rather than Small Business Health Options Program—SHOP exchanges—to satisfy the mandate.
Dive Insight:
According to Accenture, in 2015, an estimated 9 million employees will be receiving employer benefits through private exchanges. They expect that number to grow to 40 million by 2018. This could be in part because of the challenges with the SHOP exchanges this past year. According to FierceHealthPayer, the exchanges have been challenged by technical glitches, delays and low enrollment that have caused many states to default to the federal exchange.
"It's a smart move because in some cases small businesses were turned off by the SHOP exchanges," Yevgeniy Feyman, a fellow and deputy director of the Center for Medical Progress, told CNBC. "If the Sam's exchange is more transparent and easier to figure out in terms of what plans cost, and Aetna has more than one type of plan offering that gives enough choice for employers and employees, it will be a good move," he said