Health plans looking to increase their enrollment and retention rates must lean on the support of distribution partners, especially brokers. Provide brokers with the tools and platform needed to scale with increasing membership rates and interact with enrollees for a customized user experience. Health plans undergoing technology advancements consider how their changes affect staff and members but must also weigh potential effects on brokers and their members by extension.
Here are three essential tools every health plan needs to include in its Broker Portal.
1. Dashboards that Provide Insight on Enrollment and Retention Trends
A centralized Book of Business hosted through a simple portal allows brokers to effortlessly serve members through ICHRA, ACA, Medicaid, and more. Invest in streamlined processes and integrated interfaces to keep track of and easily serve members regardless of the type of coverage they selected.
Centralized data allows insight into overarching enrollment and retention trends that health plans and brokers can capitalize on. W3LL’s Broker Portal dashboard is an example of depicting overarching enrollment trends.
Figure 1 W3LL Broker Portal Dashboard
A reporting solution integrated within the Broker Portal allows for an overview of an entire member base, so brokers can identify trends to help improve their offerings. For example, noting a specific type of member more likely to term allows brokers to target and begin outreach to at-risk members immediately. A unified platform allows for a polished and personalized member experience to increase renewal rates.
Additionally, ensure that all dashboard and reporting features are customizable. Hard-coded technology has a difficult time meeting and adapting to health plan needs. Placing power in the hands of the end-users allows for a flexible platform designed to grow.
2. User-Friendly Interfaces Designed to Provide Detailed Information on Members
A great Broker Portal should provide new functionalities – such as customizable dashboards – while also helping brokers excel at the basics. Allow brokers to easily compile and organize all their members’ detailed information on a single portal. Collecting member information on a single, secure platform prevents any data redundancy and holds as a single, accurate source of truth. For example, one way that W3LL displays member information is through a single repository that can be filtered and searched.
Figure 2 W3LL Broker Portal Individual Plans Overview
Such detail allows brokers to identify members at-risk for termination through a single filter. Understanding a holistic yet detailed collection of member data allows brokers to better serve their customers.
3. Ability to Save and Share Quotes with Members
Expand your toolset to seamlessly communicate with, provide quotes to, and support members. An exceptional member experience and ongoing support can make or break a member’s opinion of their broker and health plan. Such tools should be intuitive to use and optimized for efficiency. For example, W3LL’s functionality requires limited information from the broker and is designed to scale. An integrated quote tool ensures that brokers are linked to members’ enrollment status and retain their members.
Figure 3 W3LL’s Broker Portal Save a Quote Functionality
Providing brokers with specific tools designed to attract and retain members will benefit health plans in the long run. Brokers are a health plans connection to members; a Broker Portal with a robust toolset helps brokers effortlessly scale their offerings.
Health plans need to ensure that brokers have a streamlined process to have their National Producer Number (NPN) linked with an enrollment. Providing brokers with personalized URLs for employees to enroll on their own is one way health plans can ensure that the broker NPN is associated with the enrollment.
Keep in mind a customer-first philosophy when investing in new tools and ensure that every change you make to your offerings directly links to the member experience. The more control brokers have over the shopping and enrollment process, the more communication and guidance can be tailored to the member.
Establishing a robust Portal for brokers allows health plans to grow and retain their membership at amazing rates. Health plans looking to revamp their approach to brokers and the shopping and enrollment journey should look towards W3LL. W3LL can analyze your current platform and help carve out new strategies to improve health offerings.
Reach out to Pete English and he’ll help you get started with the Broker Portal.
Pete English
With nearly two decades in health insurance, Pete English’s diverse experience makes him uniquely qualified to help health plans and brokers leverage innovative technology in partnership with W3LL. From growing sales staff by 126% over 4 years at a large health plan, to building his own health insurance brokerage firm with over $7.2MM in annualized premium, Pete has done it all.
(631) 681-4898
PEnglish@w3ll.com
