More than two dozen small businesses signed up to cover their employees through an Arkansas-based health insurance exchange during the first month and a half of enrollment, exchange officials said Wednesday.
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According to the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, 25 businesses had signed up by Dec. 15 to offer coverage through the exchange, known as My Arkansas Insurance.
Plans offered by those businesses cover 168 people, comprising 54 employees and 114 spouses or dependents, according to the marketplace.
Marketplace Director Cheryl Smith Gardner noted that during its first two years of enrollment, a federal exchange for small businesses signed up 28 businesses -- just three more than the state exchange has signed up so far.
"We're not displeased" with enrollment so far in the state exchange, Gardner said at a meeting of the marketplace's board of directors. "It's probably better than we expected, but not as much as we want."
She said exchange officials are focusing on "structure" during the first year of enrollment and will "focus more on enrollment and policy in subsequent years."
Businesses with up to 50 employees can enroll through the exchange, which is part of the federal Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP).
Under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enrolled businesses with fewer than 25 employees can receive a tax credit of up to half their premium expenses for up to two years.
The credit is available to businesses that pay average wages of less than $50,000 and pay at least half their employees' premiums.
Arkansas businesses can sign up at myarinsurance.com.
Before enrollment in the state-based small-business exchange started Nov. 1, Arkansas had been among more than 30 states that use the federal small-business exchange, which is accessible through the healthcare.gov website.
The state Legislature created the marketplace in 2013 to establish state-run exchanges for individuals and small businesses.
Reston, Va.-based hCentive set up the small-business exchange and is operating it for two years under a $7.2 million contract with the marketplace.
Although enrollment in the federal exchange started in 2013, small businesses weren't able to enroll online until November 2014.
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield is the only company offering plans in Arkansas' federal and state small-business exchanges. Businesses now covered through the federal exchange will have to re-enroll through the state exchange if they want to continue receiving exchange coverage, Gardner said.
Only one of the 25 businesses to sign up through the state exchange was renewing coverage that it had been offered through the federal exchange, Gardner said. She said she expects more businesses to transfer their plans to the state exchange as the plans come up for renewal.
The marketplace board in late 2014 received a $99.9 million grant to set up the exchanges for small businesses and individual consumers.
At the request of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the board has put on hold its plans for the individual exchange.
Hutchinson has said he doesn't see the need for such an exchange but wants to wait until state leaders decide on changes to the state's private option and other parts of its Medicaid program before making a final decision on the project.
Under the private option, the state uses Medicaid funds to buy coverage on the federally run exchange for individual consumers for adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level: $16,243 for an individual, for instance, or $33,465 for a family of four.
Almost 199,000 Arkansans were enrolled in the private option as of Oct. 15. More than 61,000 others who did not qualify for the program were enrolled in plans on the individual exchange as of Dec. 15.
While businesses and those who qualify for the private option can sign up throughout the year, enrollment for other individuals is mostly limited to annual open enrollment periods.
The enrollment period for coverage starting in 2016 began Nov. 1 and ends Jan 31.
Metro on 01/07/2016