About the Virginia Marketplace

Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is a new health insurance marketplace developed for small businesses with one to 50 eligible employees. An eligible employee is one who works an average of 30 hours per week based on a month of work.

SHOP grants you the opportunity to offer your employees a host of quality health insurance options from private insurance companies and simplifying the process so you don’t have to do it on your own. Again, this is not a requirement, but many small businesses choose to offer coverage because of the many benefits it delivers to their business and employees.

Small-business owners know that the ability to offer employees quality health insurance is a competitive advantage in the labor market.

How SHOP will benefit your business:

  • Employee Loyalty – gives you clout to recruit and maintain the highest level of talent.
  • Increase Productivity and Promote Employee Presence
  • Financial Control – full ability to select the level of coverage you want to offer for your employees.
  • Tax Incentives
  • Easy Electronic Billing

How SHOP will benefit your employees:

  • Agent Support in making plan decisions
  • Multilingual Service Center

For additional information, view detailed questions and answers on SHOP procedures, including eligibility, application, enrollment, employee communications, and more. Click here for a comprehensive SHOP fact sheet.