Laurus Strategies, a Chicago-based employee benefits consultant, on Tuesday launched its private health insurance exchange consulting practice.

Dozens of national and regional employee benefit brokers, consultants, online insurance agencies and health care information technology vendors having entered the private exchange marketplace within the last 18 months, and Laurus' new consulting practice is designed to respond to growing demand among employers for objective guidance in evaluating exchange-based group health benefit programs, Laurus Strategies executives said.

“The first decision an employer needs to make is not which exchange to participate in, it's whether or not an exchange-based model is even right for them,” said Nancy Scola Lombaer, a Chicago-based partner at Laurus Strategies, in an interview with Business Insurance.

Sixty-nine percent of employers surveyed in November by Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative said having an independent adviser is “very important” in assessing the feasibility of participating in an exchange, as well as identifying the proprietary solution with the appropriate blend of benefit plans and services, the PEEC reported.

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“Our process enables employers to complete an impartial assessment of all available options so they can confidently decide on what their best course of action should be,” said Scott Carter, president of Laurus Strategies, in a statement released Tuesday. “We aspire to be the trusted, unbiased partner advising clients as they navigate this new health insurance frontier.”

Ms. Lombaer said Laurus Strategies researched the rapid expansion of the private health insurance exchange marketplace nearly two years ago and at one time considered the possibility of launching its own exchange product. After ultimately deciding to focus its efforts on offering independent consulting services, Ms. Lombaer said the company began building a database of third-party exchange products in the fall of 2013.

“We want to make sure that our clients' benefits and human resources strategies are aligned with their business goals, so we need to be prepared to go in any direction in order to help them succeed,” she said. “We just felt that by having our own exchange, we might be put in a position where we might not be able to do that.”