Each year, employees are given the opportunity to enroll in their company’s health insurance, switch to a different plan, or entirely drop their existing one. Better known as open enrollment, this annual event usually lasts one to two months and can be especially stressful for employers to navigate.
The usual challenges surrounding open enrollment can be found in a couple of different areas. First and foremost, the carriers do not make it easy — especially for smaller clients. They often do not release renewal information far enough in advance to allow for sufficient time to work closely with the client on any changes or the communications that would be required for those changes. Additionally, there is the aspect of today’s multi- generational workforce, and all of the different preferences employees have when it comes to communication. Older generations might still wish to have an actual brochure to read and review, while younger generations do not want to read anything. They have a growing tendency to prefer videos or artificial intelligence apps that help walk through their benefit options and allow for questions to be asked through something like a chat-box feature.
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Of course, in light of COVID-19, there are some additional obstacles that will play a role in this year’s open enrollment season. What we are starting to see across our book of business are higher than normal increases in the renewals from prior years. Much of that is due to some of the catch up on claims that were avoided during the lockdowns in 2020/2021, as well as the lack of employees seeking preventive care, whether that be through normal annual check- ups, cancer screenings, or other regular visits with their physicians. There is also the contributing factor of in-person meetings versus doing business virtually.
To combat these challenges, I would recommend taking a proactive approach to open enrollment. For instance, in terms of the benefits that will not likely change at the upcoming renewal, start working on the communication in order to get them done and ‘cleaned up’ before the renewal process even starts. When it comes to being able to communicate with all of the different generations, you should be working with marketing specialists or benefit communications specialists to help create clear and concise open enrollment and new hire guides. There are dozens of benefit communication apps that are available to help with this process as well.
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There is still tremendous value in having benefit counselors participate in the enrollment process. By having them accessible to employees, they can help them to enroll in plans that are best suited for their individual needs. Personal touch is about providing options for all different types of needs. The key is multi- channel communications to meet the needs of all different individuals and their comfort levels during this time.
Finally, more employers need to push their brokers and consultants for different ideas, especially if they are continuing to remain in a traditional, fully bundled health insurance plan, whether self- funded or fully- insured with a traditional carrier like Aetna, Cigna, United, or Blue Cross Blue Shield. Our best performing clients have seen average annual increases of 2%, compared to the industry standard of 5%, over the past five years because they ventured away from that traditional, easy-to-implement, easy-to-manage path. For those employers who are working with forward-thinking brokers and consultants, they are seeing improved plan designs, improved employee satisfaction, and lower annual increases.
