Abra Help

What your employees see

Items marked Coming soon are being rolled out and will be available soon. See What's new for 2027.

Use Employee View to follow along with an employee.

Home

  • Coming soon A current coverage card shows what they have today and whether they've chosen next year's coverage.
  • Coming soon An employer contribution card shows what their employer pays.
  • Begin Enrollment (or Complete Enrollment if they've started).
  • Panels for their details, dependents and benefit costs.

Enrollment

Coming soon The steps are:

  1. About You: check personal details and the address. A saved SSN shows masked, with Show SSN to see it.
  2. Dependents: add or check family members.
  3. Choose your benefits: one step per plan type. For ICHRA, the employee confirms their county, then chooses a plan.
    • More Plans shows plans beyond the recommended ones, unless the group shows recommended plans only.
    • Employees can waive coverage, or say they bought an exchange plan or are enrolling in Medicare.
  4. Review and submit: premium, employer share, employee share and per-paycheck amounts, then Finish. For ICHRA, the employee then reviews and signs their application.

These steps used to be called Enroll Benefits and Summary. While enrolling, every step shows the employee's current coverage; About You, Dependents and the other benefit steps show a one-line version with Show details.

Your county Coming soon

ICHRA plans and prices depend on the employee's county. The county card shows it. If their ZIP code covers more than one county, they're asked Which county do you live in? first. A move to another county starts on the 1st of next month. See Where employees live.

Plan cards Coming soon

Each plan card shows the deductible, out-of-pocket maximum and copays, and then:

  • Premium per month
  • Your employer pays per month
  • You pay per month, and the amount per paycheck

When the employer's amount covers the whole premium, the card says "Your employer covers the full premium". More Plans lists the monthly premium and what the employee pays, and both columns can be sorted. For ICHRA, the review step and side panel show the same monthly figures.

Coming soon Plans quoted through HealthSherpa also show the carrier's logo and whether the plan is sold Off-exchange, On-exchange, or On & off exchange.

Coming soon They also show how the employee would enroll: Apply in Abra, BCBS application, or Enroll on marketplace. A marketplace plan adds a note that the employee enrolls on HealthCare.gov or their state's marketplace, and that their share is after tax.

Your doctors Coming soon

The optional Doctors & medications panel helps employees check their doctors before they choose.

  1. Under Your doctors, the employee searches by name (near their ZIP code, or anywhere) and adds their doctors.
  2. Each plan card then shows Likely in network, for example "2 of 3 likely in network", or Not confirmed.
  3. Check network on the plan card opens the carrier's directory, or the plan's Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC).

"Likely in network" is a guide, not a promise: it means the plan's directory listed the doctor when Abra checked. The panel walks employees through confirming a doctor in the SBC and the plan's directory, and reminds them that networks change each year. The network check works for plans quoted through HealthSherpa; for other plans, employees see a note to use each plan's Check network link.

Your medications Coming soon

Under Your medications, employees add their medications as a checklist. Drug list on each plan card opens the plan's drug list (formulary), and the panel explains how to look up each medication, find its tier and match the tier to its cost in the SBC. Abra doesn't decide whether a plan covers a medication; the employee checks it in the plan's own list.

The coverage start date Coming soon

Get Quote and More Plans show the coverage start date read-only, so employees are always priced for the right date. It's the date of the enrollment period that's open (or in force, if none is open), a new hire's date after their waiting period, or a life event's coverage start.

If prices change Coming soon

When an employee saves an ICHRA plan, Abra checks the price against its own quote. If the price has changed since the employee saw it, the save stops with "Prices changed. Get a new quote and try again." Abra quotes again, keeps the chosen plan selected with its new price, and the employee saves again.

Plans bought elsewhere Coming soon

Under Record a plan you bought elsewhere, an employee who enrolled in a plan on their state's exchange, or is enrolling in Medicare, records the plan name, carrier, monthly premium, start date and a confirmation (PDF, JPG or PNG, up to 10 MB). Staff verify or reject it on the group's Applications page. If it's rejected, the employee is emailed and sees the reason, so they can fix it and record it again.

2027 choices are saved separately Coming soon

During open enrollment, the employee's choice is saved for 2027. Their 2026 coverage stays as it is until it ends.

Changes after enrolling (Manage Benefits)

Once an employee has completed enrollment, Manage Benefits opens. To change coverage outside open enrollment, they pick a reason (a qualifying life event, such as a marriage, divorce or loss of other coverage) and its date. The change goes to you for approval. A request that has expired shows as Expired.

When life-event coverage starts Coming soon

Abra works out the coverage start from the life event:

  • Birth, adoption, or placement for adoption or foster care: the date of the event.
  • Marriage, loss of other coverage, a move, or any other reason: the 1st of the month after the event, or the event date if it's the 1st. For example, an event on January 31 starts February 1.

The event date can be up to 60 days in the past or the future.

Life events use the event's year Coming soon

For a life event, the employee shops the plans and prices for the year of the event's coverage date. A November 2026 move shows 2026 plans, even while 2027 enrollment is open. Abra only accepts event dates the employee is allowed to use.

Reopening enrollment

While the enrollment window is open, employees can also reopen enrollment themselves. Once they've completed enrollment, though, changes need approval; they can't reopen it to skip that. You can reopen it for them.