Office of Consumer Health Services – Avenue H
Avenue H
OVERVIEW U.C.A 63N-11-101 Health Insurance Marketplace Avenue H is the small business health insurance solution that works. It offers insurance for small businesses with 1-50 eligible full-time employees. Avenue H provides a unique solution to small business employers and employees, allowing them a variety of health insurance choices while maintaining budget flexibility. Once employers register with Avenue H, they can easily manage their budget by defining a set dollar amount to contribute to each employee’s health plan. Employees then shop online to select their own plan based on their own individual needs. Avenue H provides 75 health care plans through three local medical carriers, Arches Health Plan, SelectHealth and UnitedHealthcare, along with six dental carriers and three health savings account (HSA) options. Employees can filter the variety of health plans by selecting preferences that are most important to them, narrowing down their options to find their ideal health care plan.
Utah’s Health Insurance Solution Utah’s approach to implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unique in comparison to the rest of the country. When the ACA was passed, it gave states three options for compliance: state-based exchange, state-federal partnership or federally facilitated exchange. In early 2013, Governor Gary R. Herbert proposed a different option to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Governor proposed a bifurcated approach that would allow the state to continue to run Avenue H as a certified health insurance marketplace (SHOP) for small businesses, leaving the federal government to create and implement a marketplace for individuals. HHS accepted Governor Herbert’s proposal, and now “the Utah approach” is the official fourth option for compliance.
Intermountain Medical Center, Murray UT Governor’s Office of Economic Development • 2015 Annual Report • www.business.utah.gov
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