The next big thing has nothing to do with premiums or benefits. It’s all about the administration – specifically electronic enrollment.
Electronic enrollment is the foundation for a host of e-services. While they share the same foundation, electronic enrollment means different things to employers and employees.
Employee Benefits
Your staff will benefit from online:
- Claims access
- ID card requests
- Validation of benefits
- Enrollment (ending those tedious handwritten applications)
- Smart phone apps (for access to plan information and documents)
All of these developments are welcome in a market where the healthcare products and processes have become increasingly complex.
Employer Benefits
You should benefit enormously from enhanced employee satisfaction and to a larger extent, streamlined administration. Here’s what you can expect:
- Employee enrollment via a universal electronic application
- Automated reports to monitor and reconcile membership transactions
- Expedited HRA claims processing prior to billing
- COBRA and Continuation tracking
- Electronic feed of employee benefit election into your payroll system
Sign Me Up Today!
Well, not so fast. While all or most of these features and benefits are available, integration and rollout is still in its infancy. Let me explain.
Insurance companies use different IT platforms for different size businesses. The line of demarcation typically is set at 100 covered employees. If you are at or above 100, then most carriers will accept and process membership data via electronic upload. This is true electronic enrollment.
If you’re below 100, then you’ll benefit from roughly two-thirds of the process. You’ll probably still have your membership data keyed in manually (no matter how the data is submitted).
Our ultimate goal is to streamline the process using a universal online application for all enrollment transactions. This creates an electronic document that SBIS will use to send membership data directly to the carriers and generate pertinent reports. You’ll have access to a slew of new reports and have everything the 100+ market does except electronic upload of data.
Making the Best of Today’s IT
Unfortunately, employee benefits – specifically medical coverage – lags when it comes to IT conveniences. This is largely due to the complex regulatory environment, privacy concerns, and the increasing complexity of medical plan designs.
We are at the beginning of a revolution in administration where, in the end, the norm will become something akin to what we have with online banking services today. Until then, our mission is to apply all the available technology to help you, your staff, and SBIS improve both effectiveness and accountability.
