Six years ago, Alan Cohen had a crazy idea.

The idea was simple, yet powerful: Let employees choose the health insurance plan they want, rather than having their employer do it for them. It would be done by allowing workers a fixed amount of money from their employer to spend in an online marketplace where they could purchase an array of benefits.

Cohen had worked in the benefits world long enough to know the ins and outs of insurance — his resumé includes stints at CIGNA, Prudential and Mass Mutual, as well as time spent as CEO and co-founder of Online Benefits, a benefits management and communication technology firm — but the light bulb came on, he says, when he finally started thinking about benefits through a "consumer lens."

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