Benefit firms create tremors for insurers in US healthcare shakeup

(Reuters) - American companies are sending shockwaves through the healthcare industry by moving a rapidly growing number of employees onto privately run online exchanges for their medical coverage. In a business already bracing for major change because of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, the decisions are threatening to shift more power in the market to the benefit consulting firms opening many of the exchanges. Health insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers who have traditionally had a more direct relationship with the employers could lose out to the nascent marketplaces.