Brown & Brown unit launches private health exchange consulting practice

Pacific Resources Benefits Advisors L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Brown & Brown Inc., has launched a new consulting practice tasked with providing independent third-party guidance on private health insurance exchanges.

In a statement released Thursday, Pacific Resources said its Private Exchange Consulting Practice is designed to respond to a growing need for unbiased advisory services among large employers contemplating moving their active group and/or retiree health benefit programs into one of the dozens of private health insurance exchanges currently operated by other benefits service providers.

“With private exchanges being developed and marketed by consulting firms, carriers, brokers and benefit administrators, large employers need independent advisers who can help them determine if an exchange is a viable and appropriate part of their comprehensive benefits strategy,” Jody Hunter, Pacific Resources' Chicago-based vice president of marketplace solutions, said in a statement. “In the event an employer has determined that an exchange is feasible, it will be important to evaluate all the options available in this emerging and growing marketplace.”

While Pacific Resources does not own or operate a health insurance exchange, according to the company's website, its parent Brown & Brown Inc. launched a proprietary private exchange in 2013.

The new consulting practice's service model generally consists of four phases, beginning with an assessment of the economic feasibility of moving an employer's active or retiree health benefit enrollees into an exchange, Pacific Resources said in its statement.

“Most employers at the initial stages of evaluating private health exchanges are interested in modeling the overall financial impact and understanding the nonfinancial impact without doing the full-scale (request for proposal) that accompanies a normal vendor search,” Paul Rogers, Pacific Resources' president and chief operating officer, said in the statement.

If migration into an exchange is determined to be a viable option, employers are guided through the process of evaluating and selecting one or more exchange providers, implementing the migration to the exchange platform and monitoring their vendor partners' service performance on an ongoing basis, according to the statement.