On September 3, 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) officially began referring to ICHRAs as "CHOICE Arrangements." 

CHOICE is short for Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense.

The underlying benefit is the same — just new terminology.

The model was originally created via a Trump executive order in October 2017, with ICHRA going live in 2020.

There were multiple legislative attempts in 2025-2026 to formally codify ICHRA into statute under the "CHOICE" name (first via the OBBBA, then via the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act), but the provisions renaming and expanding ICHRAs as CHOICE Arrangements were not included in the version of H.R. 1 that was actually signed into law in July 2025.

Rather than through legislation, CMS and SBA ultimately just adopted "CHOICE Arrangements" as the official federal terminology administratively. So the name change happened, but through agency rulemaking/terminology adoption rather than an act of Congress.

Given this only happened a few days ago, some industry materials (vendors, brokers, benefits guides) may still be using "ICHRA" for a while as the new name works its way through common usage.

For brokers familiar with ICHRAs, the change is primarily a new name only. 

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