Many private health exchange options for post-65 retirees

There are as many as 100 private exchange options available to employers offering post-65 retiree health benefits, according to research by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Two general types of private retiree health exchanges exist: models in which retirees have a choice of health insurance options offered by multiple insurers or those where a single insurer offers medical plan options.

The AARP's exchange, a single-insurer model administered and underwritten by Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc., is the largest retiree health exchange, providing Medicare supplemental coverage to more than 11 million post-65 retirees.

San Mateo, California-based Extend Health Inc., recently acquired by benefit consultant Towers Watson & Co., is the largest multiple-insurer health insurance exchange, providing coverage to around 800,000 people, including Medicare-eligible retirees, full-time and part-time employees, early retirees and dependents.

The HR Policy Association's Retiree Health Access, an early private health insurance exchange for large employers, is the only one that allows employers to purchase retiree health care coverage on either a group or individual basis. Two-thirds of the more than 150,000 post-65 retirees accessing health benefits via the exchange, launched in 2008, are enrolled in group plans, said Colleen McHugh, executive vice president of health care initiatives at the Health Care Policy Roundtable L.L.C. in Washington, a unit of the association.

The individual plans are underwritten by multiple competing insurers, while the group plan option is provided by Aetna Inc.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to Extend Health Inc. as serving Medicare-eligible retirees only.