San Antonio's Community First Health Plans Enters the Individual Market With Softheon's ICHRA Connector Cloud

Locally owned nonprofit health plan to offer off-exchange individual coverage options to members in Bexar County Texas

STONY BROOK, N.Y., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare technology company Softheon announced that Community First Health Plans has chosen Softheon's Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) Connector Cloud to expand the organization's access to individual off-exchange health insurance for San Antonio-area employers and their employees. The selection demonstrates growing momentum for the ICHRA Connector Cloud among independent, community-focused health plans seeking to enter the individual off-exchange market.

Employers are increasingly adopting ICHRAs to fund employee health insurance purchases instead of offering traditional group coverage, with many employees shopping for individual plans outside of federal or state-based exchanges. Softheon's 2025 survey of 1,000 U.S. adults indicated that Americans' concerns around health insurance favor alternatives like ICHRA because:

• 67% of respondents cite high costs as their primary concern
• 52% say cost clarity is a top factor in building healthcare confidence
• 63% state that employer financial support would improve their healthcare experience

ICHRAs address these priorities by enabling employers to provide tax-advantaged support while allowing employees to choose more affordable plans.

"Community First represents exactly the type of mission-driven health plan that's well-positioned to succeed in the ICHRA market because of its deep commitment to the community and its understanding of the needs of employers and residents," said Eugene Sayan, CEO and founder of Softheon. "As the second health plan in recent weeks to select our ICHRA Connector Cloud, they're part of a growing movement among independent, community-focused plans that understand how to meet employers' evolving needs while maintaining the local accountability their members value."

Softheon's ICHRA Connector Cloud manages the complete ICHRA member lifecycle, from initial enrollment through ongoing billing and payment processing, giving health plans a single solution for their off-exchange business.

Key capabilities include:

• A compliant, branded off-exchange experience with simplified administration
• Connectivity to any number of ICHRA administrators and brokers, without the need for custom integrations
• Reduced IT overhead and faster time-to-market through a single integration point

Community First Health Plans, the only locally owned and managed nonprofit health plan in the San Antonio area and surrounding counties, has served over 3.5M members across Bexar County and seven surrounding Texas counties.

"Community First's mission has always been to improve health outcomes and provide access to quality care," said Theresa Rodriguez Scepanski, President and CEO of Community First Health Plans. "The ICHRA market gives us an opportunity to serve families who value having a locally owned health plan that understands their needs and reinvests in their community. Softheon's platform allows us to offer these members more choices while maintaining the personalized, community-focused approach that defines who we are."

Softheon provides cloud-based solutions for shopping, eligibility, enrollment, billing, and member management, with agentic AI automation and data-driven decisioning to streamline operations for health plans, enrollment partners, and government agencies. Softheon operates strictly as the Agent of Record (AOR) for health plans, preserving the plan's fiduciary control while avoiding the compliance complications that arise when a single entity claims both broker and agent status.

For more information about the ICHRA Connector Cloud, please visit softheon.com/ICHRA.

About Softheon
Founded in 2000, Softheon's healthcare Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Business Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) solutions solve complex challenges for health plans, their distribution networks, and government health agencies. Currently, Softheon's solutions serve over 100 health plans. Issuers and consumers in Small Group, ICHRA, Dental, Medicare, and Affordable Care Act (ACA) markets benefit from Softheon's technology that reduces administrative overhead and enhances user experiences. Softheon is an Agent and Merchant of Record that facilitates health insurance enrollment, administration, and renewal. Softheon is recognized as one of the World's Top HealthTech Companies of 2025 by TIME. For more information on Softheon's solutions, visit www.softheon.com.

About Community First Health Plans
Community First Health Plans is dedicated to improving health outcomes and reducing disparities for diverse, historically underserved populations. Through innovative partnerships and community-driven initiatives, Community First continues to be a leader in providing quality healthcare solutions in the Texas region.

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SOURCE Softheon