PRIVATE EXCHANGE PROFILE
Customizing the Health Insurance Shopping Experience BY JEFF YANIGA » VP OF EXCHANGES » CONNECTURE
With private health insurance exchange enrollment projected to reach 40 million people by 2018, health plans are not thinking if they should offer employers private exchanges so much as how they will implement them and what they’ll look like. The driving factor? Cost — to employers, their employees and the entire health care industry. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, health insurance premiums increased 160 percent during the past 12 years, far surpassing inflation that climbed 33 percent during the same period. That’s a strong basis to seek a smarter approach to health insurance coverage and control cost. While the majority of employers used to feel health insurance was necessary to stay competitive, now less than half feel this way; 30 percent welcome the opportunity to shift these costs to employees and 24 percent to the government (Source: Harris Interactive). The once sacred health insurance bene t is being viewed in a completely different way by employers today and trending that way in the future. So the question is how should brokers, bene t consultants and health plans adapt? The answer is to make shopping for and purchasing health insurance easy, to offer value to the employer and their employees, and to build loyalty.
Connecture’s One Marketplace: An Intuitive Health Insurance Shopping Experience Connecture, Inc., a provider of Web-based information systems used to create health insurance marketplaces, has a unique view of the individual, leading to an easier and ultimately more costeffective health insurance shopping experience. Through its One Marketplace strategy – based on 15 years’ working with multiple plans, government entities and agents representing employers, and with successful experience integrating with other complex systems — Connecture tracks one record for each individual throughout their coverage history. That means if employment status changes, coverage options shift, or someone moves from an individual to a family plan, they do not need to start from scratch. In fact, One Marketplace is built on the idea that all health insurance channels should be available to the consumer, either through their employer or directly. How does it work? Depending on the employer, there are many private exchange options ranging from one designed to provide
health coverage through a single health plan with a de ned contribution to a much broader option that covers retirees, individuals and groups for health and ancillary services through a combination of partners with both a de ned contribution and de ned bene t option. Employers may also offer a health savings account. Once in the exchange, consumers have a personalized shopping experience that tracks the degree to which they would like to interact, provides pre-loaded elds for convenience, and conducts cost-saving analysis that alerts consumers to things like upcoming Medicare options based in their age. Decision support questions are personalized for the user’s “season in life” and uncover recommendations for voluntary and ancillary products as well as medical products. Connecture’s marketplaces include easy-to-use decision support tools, such as click-to-chat/call, physician search, and an out-of-pocket cost calculator to determine overall cost – not just the monthly premium. Connecture’s One Marketplace technology and analytics also recognize that some consumers are hesitant when shopping online for health insurance, especially for the rst time, and allow them to come back as often as necessary before making a purchase. Health insurance is a signi cant nancial commitment, so it is critical the shopping experience is a good one and consumers feel empowered to do what’s right for them. For the employer, private exchanges open up new channels for part-time workers and retirees, even as they move away from providing health care. But private exchanges should not be considered a short-term nancial cost curve strategy — they involve a major shift in behavior, transparency and a commitment to ensuring an experience for employees that is not intimidating. Most employers want to get out of the health bene ts business to save money. This can be achieved by partnering with health plans that can provide an intuitive private exchange platform and guidance on how to make the best health coverage decisions. This will ultimately save money for employers and their employees, and impact nationwide health costs over time.
HealthCare Exchange Solutions™ I www.TheIHCC.com I May/June 2014
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