Arkansas' health insurance exchanges would be known as My Arkansas Insurance under a recommendation made Wednesday by a state board's committee.
In the same unanimous vote, the outreach and marketing committee of the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace also recommended approval of a logo featuring a bird's-eye view of a colorful umbrella inside an outline of the state's borders.
The logo and brand name would be used to promote enrollment in Arkansas' Small Business Health Options Program exchange, which is likely to be run by the state marketplace board starting Nov. 1, as well as for an exchange for individual consumers that the board hopes to establish for coverage that would start in 2017.
Gary Heathcott, senior client strategist for the Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods advertising firm in Little Rock, told the committee that the firm came up with the name and logo after testing more than 225 combinations of names, slogans and logos with potential consumers.
My Arkansas Insurance "was the one that people got so personal with," Heathcott said. "They liked that Arkansas was in it."
The name resonated with committee member Annabelle Imber Tuck, a former state Supreme Court justice.
"I've lived all over the world, and I knew I was an Arkansan," Tuck said.
Jill Joslin, the firm's senior vice president for account services, said the firm's research included seven focus groups, held earlier this month in Fort Smith, Little Rock and Jonesboro, and interviews with "stakeholders."
Last month, the firm, which was hired by the board under a two-year, $5.8 million contract, held a meeting with people affected by the exchange and gathered input from the outreach and marketing committee and from an advisory committee for the state's federally operated health insurance exchanges, she said.
Committee members Fred Bean and Mike Castleberry voted along with Tuck to recommend the name and logo. Committee member Steve Faris was not at the meeting.
The full board will vote on the recommendation July 8.
Created by the state Legislature in 2013, the marketplace board is using money from a $99.9 million grant to set up the exchanges, which provide access to subsidized coverage made available under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Currently Arkansas is among 34 states with federally operated exchanges, which are accessible through the healthcare.gov website.
Act 398, passed by the Legislature this year, prohibits the Arkansas marketplace from implementing the state-based exchanges until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a lawsuit that argues the Affordable Care Act allows tax credit subsidies only for consumers in states that set up their own exchanges.
If the Supreme Court sides with the plaintiffs, the state Legislature must approve the establishment of the Arkansas exchanges. A ruling in the case is expected by the end of this month.
About 67,000 Arkansans were enrolled in coverage through the federal exchange for individual consumers as of June 15.
In addition, 160 Arkansans were enrolled in the small-business exchange as of March 15.
In preparation for the Nov. 1 start of enrollment in Arkansas' small-business exchange, the outreach effort will be focused on insurance agents and brokers and small-business owners and will include training sessions for insurance agents on how to use the exchange, marketplace spokesman Heather Haywood said.
"It is truly an education campaign," she said.
Metro on 06/25/2015