Lessons from OE
The data from the 2013 open enrollment are full of some interesting lessons. And just as your best teachers didn’t simply hand over the answers, our OE data has us working to do some thinking to draw out key concepts. Among some of the early lessons learned was one interesting nugget (that may or may not surprise you): even passive enrollments aren’t that passive anymore.
You may be wondering just how they aren’t so passive anymore. Well, think about your benefits plan. Are your elections becoming simpler or more complex? In the name of managing cost, everything from surcharges to wellness programs are adding to the standard enrollment – and ensuring that employees have to actively participate in the enrollment process each year. Here are a few new high points from the not-so-passive lesson plan that delivered traffic to our servers this OE:
- Health Risk Assessments: Employees have to log in to participate in their HRA. And log in they did.
- Surcharges: Did employees complete their HRA or need to certify they’re a non-smoker? Those activities drew even the passive enrollees.
- Wellness engagement: Employers had employees link to wellness programs through the platform – either to sign up or report info. We saw them engaged on our platform as well.
- Flex spending contributions: Flex contributions have been around – it’s fair to say they are the tenured member of this list. Employees were on our platform selecting contributions for the upcoming year.
If the 2013 OE season is beginning to teach us anything, it’s that benefits continue to change at an incredible pace.