Florida Picks Ceridian, eHealth To Run Exchange

Florida Health Choices program managers have selected a unit of Ceridian Corp. to run a Web-based small group health insurance marketplace.

Republican lawmakers in Florida created the program in 2008 in an effort to come up with a free-market approach to health insurance reform. The Florida exchange is different from the kind of small group health insurance distribution exchange that the Affordable Care Act, the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), is supposed to set up in 2014.

The Florida Health Choices program exchange will be a kind of health insurance buying club for small businesses. Small business benefits managers can use the system to compare products from participating carriers and give employees the ability to choose from a menu of several different health plans.

Program managers have awarded Ceridian, Minneapolis, a 5-year contract.