A new tool is allowing employers to subsidize health insurance without sponsoring a traditional group health insurance plan. Like a 401(k), it promises to give employees flexibility and responsibility by requiring them to hold the reins. For employers that adopt it, the individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement, or ICHRA, could be the biggest shift in how employees access health insurance since employer-sponsored group health plans first gained traction after World War II.

Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ: WLTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, announced today that they now offer individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) solutions to existing and new employer clients through their employee Health Benefits Consulting and Administration businesses.

Beginning next year, employers will have a new option for providing active employees access to health insurance — an individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement, also known as ICHRA (pronounced ick-ra). And while it’s been on the horizon since 2017, the final rule published in June 2019 now has employers wanting more information on what it could mean for them and their employees.