Believing employees should have more choices when selecting their health insurance, CaliforniaChoice announced today that beginning in February new and renewing small businesses will have the option to offer employees access to two neighboring metal tiers of health plans and benefits referred to as "tiered choice."

Under the Affordable Care Act, health benefits are divided into four metal tiers - platinum (the richest benefits), gold, silver and bronze. Each tier offers a variety of benefits from which to choose. Employers can offer employees access to a single metal tier from which to select their health plan and benefits; however, CaliforniaChoice is offering employers the ability to provide two metal tiers to their employees.

The "tiered-choice" option offers employees greater access to health plans, benefits, doctors, specialists and hospitals by providing two ACA-compliant metal tiers together rather than access to a single, standalone metal tier. Available "tiered-choice" options include platinum and gold, gold and silver, or silver and bronze metal tiers. Each metal tier available through CaliforniaChoice also offers employees access to both full and limited provider networks, one more way the program provides more access and greater control to employees.

"We approached our health plan partners with the idea of offering two metal tiers to those employers wanting to provide employees with more choices and access to providers," explains Ron Goldstein, president and CEO of CHOICE Administrators, which operates CaliforniaChoice. "Their response was extremely supportive; and each health plan agrees that providing employees with greater access to doctors, specialists and hospitals is vital in the adoption of health insurance exchanges in 2014."

CaliforniaChoice includes many of the state's best-known and most widely sought-after health plans including Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente, Sharp Health Plan and Western Health Advantage and offers 34 HMOs, two EPOs, nine PPOs and HSA-compatible plans. CaliforniaChoice also offers 14 provider networks that give employees access to more providers than any other single program in California.

CaliforniaChoice also makes dental, vision, chiropractic and life options available as well as offering a "Business Solutions Suite" at no additional cost. This suite offers small business owners a variety of products and services, including discount dental, discount vision, Federal COBRA billing, Flexible Spending Accounts, employee discount prescription drug cards, online human resource support and an employee discount program.

CaliforniaChoice currently serves more than 10,000 employers and 150,000 employees. As it has been throughout its history, CaliforniaChoice is offered exclusively through independent health insurance brokers who Goldstein calls "more valuable than ever in helping to provide the information and unbiased recommendations purchasers need to make well-informed decisions."

CaliforniaChoice is a division of CHOICE Administrators, the nation's leading developer and administrator of consumer-choice insurance exchange models. Further information is available at www.calchoice.com.

for CaliforniaChoice
Ross Goldberg, 818-597-8453, x-1
ross@kevinross.net