Enrollment Links & AOR States: What Agents Need to Know

For agents: This explains how your client's employees get from accepting ICHRA benefits to shopping for an individual plan — and how that differs from your quote/signup link.

What employees actually use

Employees do not buy health plans inside StretchDollar. After they accept benefits, they use the Benefits Portal Shop experience, which routes them to an external marketplace or partner shopping flow based on their state (and, for some partners, partner-specific HealthSherpa routing).

Depending on the employee's state, that may be:

• A HealthSherpa on-exchange or off-exchange shopping experience
• A state-based marketplace (for example, Covered California or Pennie)
• Another partner-configured enrollment/shopping path

Plans are purchased with the carrier/marketplace — StretchDollar remains the reimbursement platform.

AOR / attribution: set expectations correctly

Shopping attribution and agent-of-record handling depend on how the employer account is set up with StretchDollar and the partner arrangement (for example, partner-specific HealthSherpa agent IDs). Agents should not assume every state automatically credits their personal agent ID unless that has been confirmed for the account.

• If you need a state-specific shopping destination or agent attribution change for a client, contact support@stretchdollar.com (or your StretchDollar partner contact) rather than telling the employer admin to "enter enrollment links" in the company portal — employers do not configure Shop routing there.
• Keep your licensing / AOR state coverage current with StretchDollar so support knows where you can advise clients.

Three different links — don't mix them up

• Your finalized quote / client signup link: brings on a new employer client and associates the account with you.
• Employer employee invites: the company admin invites employees into StretchDollar to start benefits setup — this is not a marketplace enrollment link.
• Employee Shop routing (by state/partner): after an employee accepts ICHRA benefits, this is where they go to shop/enroll in an individual plan.

How to help when an employee is stuck shopping

1. Confirm the employee is in the Benefits Portal and past the accept-benefits step.
2. Have them open Shop and use the marketplace link shown for their state.
3. If the wrong marketplace appears, or they need broker assistance for plan selection, escalate to StretchDollar support with the employee state and employer account — routing is managed at the platform/partner level.