Collins: Where's the PPACA group plan enrollment data?

CCIIO was unable to get a SHOP enrollment website working in time to enroll employers in SHOP plans for 2014. The agency is planning to get a SHOP enrollment site working by Nov. 15, Alvarez said. Employers in five states — Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey and Ohio — will be able to set up accounts, assign agents and load employee rosters through a feature testing period before the system goes live nationwide.

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Jon Gabel, an analyst at a University of Chicago research center, looked at prices for SHOP coverage and off-exchange coverage in 26 states. In those states, where researchers could get the data needed from state insurance websites and SHOP exchanges, SHOP coverage for a 40-year-old nonsmoker at a one-employee firm was 7 percent lower than coverage sold only off-exchange, he said.

It’s possible that the SHOP coverage was cheaper because the SHOP plans used narrower networks and offered fewer benefits outside the official PPACA essential health benefits package, Gabel said.

But, for the most price-conscious employers, “SHOP is the place to shop,” Gabel said.

Gabel said the insurers most interested in selling SHOP plans are new carriers and small carriers that have traditionally had a hard time competing with the big carriers. He said lack of broker interest in SHOP plans might be partly responsible for soft sales.

“Eighty percent of small employers use brokers or agents,” Gabel said. “Insurers reported in our interviews that brokers do not feel ‘plugged in’ to the SHOP marketplace and view SHOPs as competitors…. The dilemma for SHOPs is that they need broker cooperation, but that SHOPs aim to reduce administrative expenses, and a major component of administrative expenses are brokers’ fees that may constitute 5 percent of premiums or more.”