Maryland’s small business health exchange is finally up and running after more than a year of delays, technical glitches and changes of plan.
The state-run or federal health exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act were designed to include benefits that would make health insurance more affordable for small business owners and give their employees more options. The Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, was originally envisioned as part of the online insurance marketplace Maryland Health Connection, where individuals can shop for health plans. Here, businesses were supposed to be able to sign up for tax credits and let their employees choose from a wide range of health plans with similar price and value.
Those plans were pushed back as the state sorted out severe technical glitches with the individual marketplace. Small business tax credits have been available all along, but the employee choice program is newly available this year.
The exchange last year selected three third-party administrators— Kelly & Associates Insurance Group, BenefitMall, and Group Benefit Services — to add the exchange’s small business offerings to their existing menu of services. Each has set up an online portal to help process sign ups; all of which are open for business as of this month.
Here’s what you need to know about the exchange’s small business exchange:
- The two main benefits the exchange offers small businesses are tax credits and what’s called an “employee choice” program. Businesses can qualify for a two-year tax credit if they have 25 or fewer employees. Tax credits, a percentage of the company’s overall premium costs, vary depending on employees’ average salary. For example, a company with 15 full-time employees who earn an average salary of $35,000 can get a tax credit worth 13 percent of their total premium payments.
- The “employee choice” program is intended to allow employers to offer more health plan options. Typically businesses select a two or three plans and let employees choose which they want. The smaller the business, the fewer plan options employers can offer. The employee choice option leans on the exchange’s “metal levels,” which is a way of categorizing health plans based on cost and value. Plans on each metal level — bronze, silver, gold and platinum — are priced similarly and offer similar value, but benefits may vary. Employers can give employees the right amount of money to buy a health plan from a specific metal level and let them choose from among the dozen or so plans in that category.
- Unlike the exchange’s individual plans, there is not a set enrollment period. Businesses can move to the employee choice program or sign up for tax credits anytime throughout the year, though it would make the most sense to make the change when their current health plan expires.
- Business that want to participate in the exchange’s small business offerings or learn more about them should head to one of three third-party administrators managing the program: Kelly & Associates Insurance Group, BenefitMall, or Group Benefit Services. Each of these firms has developed an online portal to help small businesses with the process.
Date: August 12, 2015