Over the past several months, the Alabama Retail Association has been evaluating a newly available option to potentially provide our members with health insurance coverage at a reduced cost.
New U.S. Department of Labor rules, just finalized this summer, allow for the association to form an Association Health Plan. In this plan, ARA members would pool their coverage and act as a single “large employer” to obtain coverage from an existing insurance provider. After working with BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama, we have reached the next step in evaluating whether a plan makes sense for our members.
What do you need from me?
The next step in this evaluation process requires information from you, a possible participant in the Association Health Plan. ARA needs some basic information about your company and its current health insurance coverage and then some detailed information about your employees and their dependents that have coverage or could potentially have coverage.
The information you provide will only be used to rate our potential risk pool and determine whether moving forward would be prudent. ARA, nor its partners, will use this data for any other purpose.
How do I submit my information?
There are two ways to submit your information to ARA. The first is to complete our census form. Before completing this form, gather the name, sex, date of birth and current coverage status for each employee and dependent that currently purchases coverage or you expect would purchase coverage if offered.
Download Census Form
or
Complete Census Form Online
If your company currently has a small group policy with BCBS, you can also submit the HCR 1095 Covered Individuals Report from the “Group Reports” section of the BCBS Group Access web portal. (How do I run the HCR 1095 Report?) After you run the report, you can securely upload the file to ARA.
If you have any questions about submitting your information, please contact us at health@alabamaretail.org or 334-263-5757.
What happens now?
Thank you for submitting your information. Without your help and participation, we would not be able to move forward with an offering. Over the coming weeks, the association will continue gathering data and working with our partner to evaluate pricing and coverage options. Once that process is completed, we will reach out to all of those who submitted data for the next step.