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Starwood Hotels signs up with private health insurance exchange

Posted On: Mar. 16, 2015 12:00 AM CST

Starwood Hotels signs up with private health insurance exchange

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. has signed up with Towers Watson & Co. to offer health insurance plans to its 26,000 U.S. employees and dependents through Towers Watson's private exchange, OneExchange.

Offering “OneExchange allows us to offer more choice in health care plans and carriers, continuing providing health and productivity programs to keep health benefits affordable, and sustain our benefit programs for the long-term,” Jeff Cava, executive vice president and chief human resource officer for the Stamford, Connecticut-based hotel chain said in a statement Monday.

Moving to a private exchange, which will begin April 1, “is a natural next step in our health care strategy,” Mr. Cava added.

In recent years, numerous other well-known employers, including Darden Restaurants Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., and Walgreen Co., also have moved to private exchanges.

The appeal of private insurance exchanges is that they allow employers to offload the administrative burden associated with directly offering health care plans, while typically giving employees more plans to choose from.