Obama administration delays small business exchange again; won’t be ready until late 2014.

Obama administration delays small business exchange again; won’t be ready until late 2014.HT:  Washington Post

The Obama administration is once again delaying the launch of an online small-business health care exchange, pushing the deadline back a full year to November 2014, according to an internal memo obtained by On Small Business.

Consequently, instead of enrolling online through Healthcare.gov, small employers will have to apply through an agent, broker or directly through an insurer to enroll in plans through the new federal marketplace, for at least the next year. Department of Health and Human Services officials say the changes are meant to allow business owners to apply for coverage offline while the agency continues to make improvements to the Web site.
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“We’ve concluded that we can best serve small employers by continuing this offline process while we concentrate on both creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP Marketplace,” the agency’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wrote in the memo distributed to health law stakeholders.Read the full story Here.

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