Just found out that my wife's company, Walgreens is going with a private insurance exchange, Aon, to manage and offer healthcare options. In the past we had two HRA options 80/20 coverage and fairly high deductibles. Supposedly, under the exchange, we will have more options.

I can definitely see the benefit of an exchange as the pool is much greater (600,000 as opposed to WAG's 120,000 employees), but I would think having a middleman would negate any cost benefit that comes with the possible savings of having such a large pool.

I saw that Darden and Sears moved to Aon last year, but was unable to find how their coverage changes and employee experience for this past year. Anyone have any experience, positive or negative from an exchange of this sort?

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Posted by BayouBlue

Austin

Member since Nov 2003

1940 posts

Posted on 9/18/13 at 10:39 am to Boss

An exchange is just an online marketplace, just like you purchase a flight online. Walgreens will probably offset any cost of the exchange and provide a defined contribution (set amount) to each employee.

Anyone with experience would have participated in a Utah or Mass public/private exchange and each state has their own set of rules. Walgreens is definitely on the bleeding edge and most large organizations won’t make any changes to their health plan in 2014. Aons private exchange is there to curb employer cost and pass the cost to the employee so they can make an educated decision on the type of plan they require. (could cost more)

Having access to an exchange would negate any savings because there is a cost to establish all the carrier feeds and to pay admin fees. I could envision some discounted products that come with accessing this private exchange but not much.

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