Open Enrollment Trends for 2020: Ease’s Q4 Preparedness Report

Do you have a plan in place to proactively support your clients this open enrollment season amidst a global pandemic? In an instant, COVID-19 upended our sense of normalcy, including the way we live and do business. As you prepare for an open enrollment season unlike anything you’ve seen before, one thing is clear: now is the time to be prepared. Ease partnered with general agents and health insurance carriers to survey nearly 600 brokers, account managers, and agency owners and discovered several open enrollment trends for 2020. 

Through the 2020 Fourth Quarter Preparedness Report, we learned how the pandemic has changed the way insurance agencies think about investing in technology, as well as how the pandemic has affected business over the course of the last several months. In this week’s Broker Tool Belt, we share the highlights to help you prepare for the upcoming open enrollment and better serve your clients.

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Open Enrollment Communications Tips for Insurance Brokers

Under normal circumstances, open enrollment is already a stressful time for insurance brokers. In 2020, amidst a pandemic, the enrollment season has become even more complex. Without the ability to meet clients in person, effective open enrollment communications will be vital. You have done the hard work to put together benefits plans that cover your clients’ needs, but if employees don’t understand their benefits and their value, how are they going to appreciate them? Great benefits deserve great communications.

Furthermore, in today’s job market, a competitive benefits package is a great tool to attract talent. It also enhances employee engagement and retention. Without the right communications plan, employees can miss out on the valuable benefits offerings, causing dissatisfaction and losses for both you and your clients. In this Broker Tool Belt post, we share tips for insurance brokers to build effective open enrollment communications, ensure employee participation, and keep moving your business forward to define the next normal.

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Health Insurance Quoting Software to Increase Enrollments

From the ACA to level-funded plans, it can be daunting for employers to make informed selections when there are so many options available to them regarding what type of health insurance plan to offer their employees. As their trusted advisor, they will look to you to help paint a clear picture of what those options are, making it your job to put out requests for proposals or pull health insurance quotes from multiple carriers, as well as compile relevant documentation, including questionnaires, ultimately presenting all the relevant choices to your clients. In this scenario, manually entering information about each group to each carrier they are offering plans with can take a long time, becoming an arduous process. In this week’s Broker Tool Belt, we share why health insurance quoting software will help you boost efficiency, increase enrollments, and make your groups more profitable so that you can keep moving your business forward to define the next normal. 

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Becoming a Benefits Administration Advisor to Get Ahead in 2020

Over the course of the last few months, we have experienced the worst global pandemic in more than a century. In many ways, it feels as though we are collectively experiencing the test of a lifetime. While there might be a high number of brokers adapting to the new normal, most continue to act as if the coronavirus outbreak didn’t introduce fundamental changes in the way business is conducted and didn’t have an impact on their clients’ decision-making. Do you believe the right strategy is to continue to act like it’s “business as usual”? In this week’s Broker Tool Belt, we explain why the future of benefits administration resides on the brokers’ ability to shift their role from a product vendor to a trusted advisor.

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Why Online Benefits Enrollment Will Help You Win New BORs

The season leading up to open enrollment is a good time to focus on winning new business and growing your agency. However, if you concentrate on the same strategies year after year, you might not be able to see the kind of business growth you would like to. For this reason, we encourage you to revisit your strategy for winning new clients by introducing online benefits enrollment to your offering. If you are able to invest a few weeks of your summer on bringing your agency online, you’ll improve the employee benefits enrollment experience and produce amazing returns in terms of new clients before Q4 and into 2021. In this Broker Tool Belt post, we share the reasons why online benefits enrollment will help you win new BORs. 

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Ease and VSP Vision Care Partner to Improve Core Employee Benefits Experience

San Francisco, CA, June 23, 2020 — Ease, a leading HR and benefits software solution for small businesses, insurance brokers, and insurance carriers, has partnered with VSP Vision Care, the only national not-for-profit vision benefits company in the United States, to provide brokers and HR administrators with better access to core employee benefits.

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Helping Employers Navigate COVID-19

HR teams have mobilized to adjust to a virtual workplace, while helping employees stay healthy at home and advising them on what to do if they experience symptoms. But are you doing everything in your power to help them stay afloat and navigate COVID-19? The pandemic took us by surprise. Now, it’s time to be proactive and get ready for the potential second and third waves of COVID-19. In this week’s Broker Tool Belt, we share a broker’s guide to helping employers navigate COVID-19 so you can meet your clients’ needs and increase their satisfaction during these unprecedented times. 

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Ease and Sun Life Partner to Improve Core Employee Benefits Experience

San Francisco, CA, May 21, 2020 — Ease, a leading HR and benefits software solution for small businesses, insurance brokers, and insurance carriers, has partnered with Sun Life U.S. to provide brokers and HR administrators with better access to core employee benefits. 

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Ease and Ameritas Partner to Improve Core Employee Benefits Experience

San Francisco, CA, May 13, 2020 — Ease, a leading HR and benefits software solution for small businesses, insurance brokers, and insurance carriers, has partnered with Ameritas to provide brokers and HR administrators with better access to core employee benefits.

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