NEW YORK—Open enrollment for individual health plans begins on Nov. 1 for plans that start on Jan. 1, 2016. However, small businesses can enroll in Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) plans at any time. The SHOP Marketplace is open to employers with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees (FTEs), including non-profit organizations. Large employers can hold open enrollment periods at any time of the year, although most choose year-end.

Open enrollment is a great opportunity to introduce new tools and resources to a captive audience, and it is the perfect time to help employees become better health care consumers all year long. Here are some tips for making the best of your open enrollment season.

• Focus on communication. Change is always unnerving for some employees, so you need to develop and implement a strategy early to prepare employees for what is coming. Employees need time to digest information, and you need time to reinforce it on a regular basis.

Deploy a complete communications campaign spread over time. Use a combination of print, Web, e-mail and face-to-face communication at open enrollment meetings to drive a consistent message. While it is important to communicate thoroughly and introduce new ideas, do not overload employees with information. Try to strike the right balance in what, how and when you communicate.

• Anticipate a rush. The most diligent of employees will call on the first morning open enrollment begins. Plan accordingly by having the necessary staff in place. But do not slack off, because 75 percent of all enrollments are done in the last three days, due to procrastinating employees.

• Select reasonable enrollment deadlines. Make sure you’re giving employees reasonable business-related deadlines, such as a Wednesday at 5 p.m. This approach will also give you the opportunity to remind them the day before and reduce the likelihood of a last-minute crunch. Setting deadlines on a Friday, a holiday or at midnight tend to increase problems.

• Be available. Even if you have provided self-service options, people still like to talk to a live person during open enrollment. Set up and review a set of FAQs that cover what are likely to be common questions.

• Personalize. People relate much better to examples relevant to their situations. It helps to provide testimonials from other people in similar circumstances or to offer tools that allow employees to model and make decisions based on their own circumstances.

• Be honest and direct. Are costs increasing? Benefits shrinking? Be frank. At a minimum, ensure employees fully understand the 5 Cs of enrollment: cost, coverage, changes to plans, comparisons to the previous year’s plans and current options. Be clear with employees on the actions they need to take.

• Expect pushback. In response to continued health care cost increases, you may be preparing to communicate major health benefit changes to employees. If so, expect to hear concerns from employees.
This year’s enrollment information can help you properly plan for the next open enrollment period. Did the high-deductible plan gain in popularity? Did employees sign up for plans that offered more choice? What were the questions, snafus and bottlenecks? That is powerful information for future action. Gather data to help you learn about employees’ desires and predispositions: by job title, region, other criteria, as well as to determine what your team can do better next time.

Rather than concentrating all your benefit communication efforts at open enrollment, consider making benefit communications a year-round project. Holding seminars and Q&A sessions throughout the year will help your employees better understand how their benefits work, and help them appreciate them more.

Brief but regular communications, whether by newsletter or video, can also help reinforce the value of your benefits program and help your employees be better educated when open enrollment rolls around again. For suggestions on creating or improving a benefits education program, please contact your insurance broker or insurance carrier.

Hedley Lawson, Contributing Editor
Managing Partner
Aligned Growth Partners, LLC
(707) 217-0979
hlawson@alignedgrowth.com
www.alignedgrowth.com