Pacific Resources Benefits Advisors, LLC (“Pacific Resources”), a leading employee benefits advisory firm that works with Fortune-ranked companies and other large employers, today announced the launch of a new practice to provide independent, third-party assessment of private insurance exchanges.

Pacific Resources’ Private Exchange Consulting Practice will help large employers understand the opportunities and challenges of the private exchange marketplace for active employees and retirees through a customized phased approach that includes economic feasibility analysis, exchange sourcing, implementation, and monitoring and reporting. Pacific Resources does not own or have an incentive to work with any private exchange vendor or benefits technology platform.

“The decision to move employees to a private insurance exchange requires considerable objective analysis and evaluation of multiple factors,” said Jody Hunter, Vice President, Marketplace Solutions at Pacific Resources. “With private exchanges being developed and marketed by consulting firms, carriers, brokers and benefit administrators, large employers need independent advisors who can help them determine if an exchange is a viable and appropriate part of their comprehensive benefits strategy.”

“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,” Hunter added.

Earlier this year, Pacific Resources surveyed large employers representing approximately 6 million covered lives with a median employee population of 23,000 employees. Nearly 75 percent of the companies that responded to the survey are ranked in the Fortune 1000, with several listed in the top 50.

The top three reasons employers gave to move to a private exchange were:

  • Cost savings opportunity (85 percent)
  • Giving employees more choice, which may better meet their coverage needs (66 percent)
  • Minimal network disruption (37 percent)

The survey also showed that 87 percent of large employers view benefits as a means of attracting, recruiting and retaining employees, or as an integral part of overall employee engagement and productivity.

“While employers want to save money, our research shows that benefits are essential to their Total Rewards Talent strategy,” explained Paul Barden, Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Resources. “We believe that the decision to move to an exchange is a critical and strategic business decision, which needs to be supported by independent information and analysis.”

As part of its Private Exchange Consulting Practice, Pacific Resources has formed a strategic alliance with a leading independent healthcare actuarial services firm to assist in the economic and qualitative evaluation of private insurance exchanges and benefits administration associated with exchanges.

“Most employers at the initial stages of evaluating private health exchanges are interested in modeling the overall financial impact and understanding the non-financial impact without doing the full scale RFP that accompanies a normal vendor search,” said Paul Rogers, President & COO, Pacific Resources. “Using more than 50 years of healthcare data and research, our actuarial partner has created the industry’s gold standard to estimate expected claim costs and model healthcare utilization. Using this high caliber modeling, Pacific Resources can bring the most reliable migration and benchmark model to the industry.”

To learn more, visit www.PrivateExchangeConsulting.com

About Pacific Resources:

Pacific Resources Benefits Advisors, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE:BRO). Pacific Resources is a leading employee benefits advisory firm that works with Fortune-ranked and other large employers. For over three decades, Pacific Resources’ evidence-based insights have shaped innovative employee benefit solutions, helping companies get the most value from their benefit plans and positively impacting the lives of millions of employees. The Company’s web address is http://www.pacresbenefits.com/