Aon Hewitt establishes a healthcare exchange for corporate clients

Aon Hewitt, the human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation, plans to offer a corporate healthcare exchange to employers nationwide, targeting 1,000 or more full-time employees, beginning as early as 2012.

Aon Hewitt has been providing and administering retiree medical exchanges for several years. The Aon Hewitt exchange model is an extension of its retiree medical exchange, which administers retiree benefits to more than 2.4 million participants. In anticipation of changes to the insurance market, the organization is extending its exchange model to offer employers a viable option for active employees.

The company is conducting healthcare conferences for their clients in many cities. At the Chicago and New York events, 243 participants were asked about their plans to provide healthcare coverage to their employees in 2015 and beyond. There was a nearly even split between employers who thought they would ultimately be delivering health benefits via a corporate exchange (43%) vs. continuing to offer healthcare benefits directly with greater financial controls and policies (47%).  Meanwhile, 9% said they would continue their attempts to manage the healthcare trend annually, based on current business and economic conditions, and 1% said they do not believe they would be offering healthcare coverage at all in 2015.