The Catch: Big Boy Exchanges

Some employers might have qualms about the idea of the federal government setting up a health insurance exchange program, but many large employers are interested in the idea of using “corporate exchanges.”

Consultants at Aon Hewitt, an arm of Aon Corp., Chicago (NYSE:AON), have reported that finding in a summary of results from a survey of about 560 employers.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) is supposed to create a system of government-supervised exchanges, or Web-based health insurance supermarkets, for individuals and small groups starting in 2014.

The PPACA exchanges are not supposed to be open to employers with more than 100 employees at least until 2017.

But 94% of the employers surveyed said they still want to offer health benefits, despite predictions that many employers will choose to pay a relatively modest penalty for not offering coverage rather than continuing to pay for coverage.

About 72% of the employers said they are very or somewhat interested in exploring the idea of using an exchange designed for large employers, and 44% said they might use a corporate exchange to provide employee health benefits in the next 3 to 5 years.

Only 4% of the employers said they now use an exchange to buy health benefits.

HSA STATS

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reporting solid growth in taxpayer use of health savings accounts (HSAs).