Modern Healthcare quoted Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health, for an article about Vermont's waiver for exemption from building a website for its small-business insurance exchange, hoping that employers enroll directly through insurers instead. Vermont is the first state to send a finalized request to the CMS, and its waiver could serve as a national model.

In an analysis on the state's proposal, Ario said that a number of other states might follow Vermont's example and consider direct enrollment with insurers rather than enrollment through the current web portal known as the Small Business Health Options Program.