Covered California has announced the selection of General Agents (GA) for the SHOP. They are Claremont Insurance Services, Dickerson Employee Benefits, LISI, and Warner Pacific. The most notable omission is Word & Brown, one of California’s premier GAs.
Choice Administrators’ CaliforniaChoice brand is a private small group exchange owned by Word & Brown. CaliforniaChoice is Covered California’s chief competitor so that could the reason
that Word & Brown was not selected or chose not to participate as a SHOP GA. The public SHOP and private CaliforniaChoice exchanges will feature the following carriers in common: Health Net, Kaiser, Sharp and Western Health. However, CaliforniaChoice will include both Aetna and Anthem Blue Cross exclusively; while SHOP will include Chinese Community Health Plan and Blue Shield of California exclusively.
Covered California opted to exclude all GAs from the individual exchange, a market that has not been penetrated to any great degree by GAs in California. In light of the changes brought on by the ACA, Word and Brown has expanded its Individual Department as well, offering various services to support agents.
May a small business come directly to the SHOP marketplace and enroll or must the small business be represented by one of the "selected" general agents?
An employer may purchase directly from the SHOP without any agent representation. Agents may submit business to the SHOP without GA involvement.