A New Game Plan: Brokers and Benefits Marketplace Platforms

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In today’s insurance and benefits marketplace1, consumers have one major thing on their mind —

how much is it going to cost? More specifically, how much value are they really getting from the

dollars spent on health care benefits? Benefits marketplace consumers, including individuals,

employers, employees, and brokers, are actively looking for better ways to shop, enroll and manage

health, financial and ancillary benefits. For brokers, whose role is far from just transactional, a

benefits marketplace platform presents an opportunity to diversify products and services and

expand relationships by adding value to dollars spent by consumers. Leveraging a benefits

marketplace technology to maximize these opportunities is smart, but it needs to align with your

client needs and overall business strategy.

THE EVOLVING RELATIONSHIPDuring America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) 2015 National Health Policy conference in Washington, D.C., Secretary Burwell credited brokers, consultants and other industry professionals as significant reasons for the nearly 11.7 million Americans (excluding Medicaid expansion and other coverage provisions) who either enrolled or renewed their health plan through a benefits marketplace during the open enrollment period. Brokers deliver expertise and a level of experience in the health benefits industry that can’t be searched online or accessed through a busy Human Resources department. The demand for live support and industry expertise has never been greater and the role of the broker has never been more important as rapid changes continue to unfold.

Traditionally, the primary role for a broker has been to mitigate the rising cost of health care by looking for alternate or modified solutions that align with their client’s budget. Although this strategy offers a siloed approach to solving client needs, it has been the widely accepted practice. Today, with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mandatory insurance requirements, and shifting insurance product designs, that traditional role of the broker has dramatically changed.

As benefits marketplaces soar in popularity and the definition of a “Private Exchange” evolves, brokers need to understand and embrace new tech-enabled shopping and enrollment platforms and how they fit into their business strategy. More importantly, brokers have the opportunity to grow market share by using these platforms to differentiate, enhance how they do business, and establish themselves as trusted advisors to their clients.

1A benefits marketplace technology platform is a software system designed to help consumers shop, compare, and enroll in health care and ancillary benefits in one location.

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THE BUILDING BLOCKSBuilding trust and respect in any relationship is not easy. In fact, building and maintaining positive relationships with individuals, employers, and insurance carriers, in a post-ACA world, has become more challenging. How does a broker build client relationships and long-term value in a marketplace that is evolving faster than the last viral video you watched on YouTube? According to hCentive’s CEO and Co-Founder, Sanjay Singh, the answer is simple — “embrace innovation. Don’t give into the impulse to continue doing business the same way you always have. Doing so will only show your unwillingness, or perhaps an inability,

to stand back and really look at the bigger, long-term picture — how can brokers better manage the post-ACA shopping and enrollment process for their clients in the most cost effective and efficient way.”

A benefits marketplace will allow brokers to not only operate effectively in the new world of health benefits, but also take advantage of distinct opportunities that a technology platform offers.

When implementing a benefits marketplace as part of a business strategy with clients, brokers must also be prepared to adapt to an expanded role that includes providing compliance education and services, technology consulting, and much more. We’re entering the era of transparency, relevancy, and consumerism where everything will be driven and linked back to customer satisfaction. A recent article by the Institute of Healthcare Consumerism touches on how brokers can succeed in a tumultuous market in 2015 and beyond – providing four lessons for brokers and advisors on building a strategy for the future.

As brokers embrace innovation and the concept of an expanded role, the next step is to assess their current enrollment processes and current technology. This will allow the broker to determine whether or not a benefits marketplace solution will enhance the way they’re currently conducting and managing business. Conducting a comprehensive assessment and identifying areas for improvement is a crucial step. The broker’s evaluation will provide a benchmark that can be used to determine if a benefits marketplace is the most appropriate business strategy to be meet marketplace demands. It’s important to remember that not all benefits marketplaces are created equal, so choosing a benefits marketplace technology platform that’s the best fit for your business strategy can be time consuming and confusing. The technology you choose should have the right mix of resources, flexibility and configuration. When considering a technology platform, brokers should be looking for specific capabilities, including:

• A digital storefront that offers higher visibility with custom branding options and automated communications or notifications

• Speed to market

• Connectivity to the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) and insurance carriers that eliminates manual enrollments

• Employer choice with multi-carrier, multi-product benefits packages such as health plan, dental, vision, life, long or short-term disability, critical illness, etc.

• Enrollment administration for any size employer

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• Navigating expanded choice with decision support and online/telephonic educational resources that improves the consumer’s knowledge of benefits and choices

• Ability to expand consultative expertise and engage in guided selling, i.e. product recommendations, subsidy calculator, etc.

WHAT NEXT? Everyone loves progress, but let’s be honest – no one really likes change. Change is hard and it’s even harder when it’s forced upon us. The truth is change requires people to navigate uncharted waters and make assumptions about trends that really have no burden of proof. That’s why it’s important that we create our own assessments, based on our own expertise, to determine the best course of action. Once a broker has determined a benefits marketplace is the best course of action to improve their overall customer satisfaction and business strategy, it’s important to map out these next steps:

1. Assessing the challenges and potential pitfalls of implementing a new technology platform

2. Determining the greatest opportunities and how the returns from those opportunities outweigh any major risks associated with the technology

3. Timeline to implement this new technology and what financial and/or administrative support needed

4. How best to communicate the vision and value in order to shift clients toward adopting this new technology platform

BENEFITS MARKETPLACE PLATFORM —ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONSWhen considering any new technology implementation, one should always weigh the challenges and pitfalls of making the shift against all the opportunities that shift will present. Therefore, before making a decision to leverage a benefits marketplace platform, brokers should ask themselves the following questions:

1. If I choose to leverage this new platform to grow my business, who/what could possibly steer me off path?

2. Would a benefits marketplace be in competition with me? Is my benefits marketplace provider also writing business directly to individual and employer clients?

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3. Does my benefits marketplace provider take over my clients once they are enrolled? Or am I still their point of contact for Life Status Changes and the purchasing of additional coverage?

4. Does my firm act as the Broker of Record? Or does the benefits marketplace provider?

5. Does the benefits marketplace provider just provide leads? Are those same leads also going to competing brokers in my market?

6. Has the benefits marketplace assured me they aren’t running a manual process behind the scene?

7. Does the benefits marketplace support trends in my market such as flexibilities in funding strategies — defined contribution v. defined benefits, self-insured v. fully-insured, etc.?

8. Does the benefits marketplace allow me to capture part time employees for individual enrollments through a seamless process?

9. Does the marketplace offer a “healthy” selection of health, financial and ancillary products relevant to individual and employer clients in my territory or market? And, are the carriers offering these products pre-integrated into the platform, ready to go?

BENEFITS MARKETPLACE PLATFORM — OPPORTUNITIES

You’ve taken the appropriate steps to evaluate a shift to a tech-enabled benefits marketplace platform. Let’s now look at the opportunities that will enable you to achieve the results you desire such as improved customer satisfaction, long-term value, stronger relationships, and growth. More specifically those opportunities include:

• Expanding your client’s enrollment offerings. Giving your clients and/or their employees the opportunity to enroll in ancillary products such as short and long-term disability, life, health savings account, and more, in addition to medical and dental benefits. What makes this truly unique is the “single platform” design or “one stop shop” approach that will help your client’s see the value in working with you.

• Be the trusted industry expert. The definition of industry expert is rapidly taking on a new meaning for consumers. Brokers can use tools within a benefits marketplace to be pro-active in their approach to engaging or educating current and prospective clients.

• Reach new markets. Believe it or not, implementing new technology with an agency marketing plan could bring brokers a whole demographic set they may not have been reaching in the past. With white label2 software, individuals or groups can now easily find you, your knowledge, and your offerings through expanded marketing efforts or a simple keyword search.

• Do more, better. With a benefits marketplace brokers can use their digital storefront to easily renew or enroll clients, send electronic notifications, track applications, outreach to prospects, connect with healthcare.gov for subsidy qualifications, and more. Having all your resources in a single-platform will improve a brokers overall capabilities and customer service.

2White label software refers to the utilization of an existing software application that’s customized to reflect a brand in the marketplace. This software can

then be used to support or promote the customer’s business offerings.

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THE TAKEAWAY

As the ACA tide continues to fluctuate with evolving models of care, shifting product enrollments, and carrier consolidation it’s imperative that brokers maintain a strong presence in the marketplace and continue to be a trusted advisor for their clients. Bottom line: as the market grows, so do the opportunities for brokers. By accelerating the adoption of tech-enabled shopping, enrollment, and benefits management, brokers will have ultimate control over product diversification, customer service, operational costs, and therefore market share. Health care reform is here to stay — and that’s a fact. Is a benefits marketplace platform the right solution for you? If not, how are you planning to innovate in the marketplace as it evolves? At hCentive we can show you how to make a benefits marketplace work for you and your long-term strategy.

ABOUT HCENTIVEAt hCentive, our mission is to empower people to gain access to health benefits through intuitive and personalized tech-enabled platforms. We are the industry leader in public and private exchange solutions that simplify the distribution and management of health and ancillary benefits. Our suite of solutions serves government agencies, insurance carriers, and brokers. Our WebInsure™ Benefits marketplace platform is pre-integrated with multiple carriers and range of benefits products and built specifically for brokers to differentiate and efficiently engage, educate, enroll and retain consumers and employers. To learn more, visit www.hcentive.com.

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