The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required each state to
establish an online competitive marketplace where, beginning in 2014,
individuals and small businesses would be able to purchase health insurance. The Small
Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is the marketplace component for small
businesses.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) operates a
federally-facilitated marketplace (FFM) in each state that did not establish
its own marketplace. The SHOP component of the FFM is known as the
FF-SHOP. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware each deferred to the federal
government to implement FF-SHOPs.
The ACA requires each SHOP to provide the “employee choice
model,” in which the employer chooses a level of coverage and a contribution
amount and employees then select any plan at that level available on the
SHOP. The requirement to offer the
employee choice model, however, was previously delayed until 2015.
On June 10, 2014, HHS released a list
of FF-SHOP states where the employee choice model would be further delayed,
pursuant to an HHS policy announced earlier this year. In total, 18 states with an FF-SHOP (including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Delaware) will not be providing the employee choice mode in 2015. Employers in these states will be able to
offer employees a single health plan and a single dental plan through the SHOP
Marketplace.
