Q1 is a prime-time for TPAs to evaluate COBRA Open Enrollment process and offerings. Evaluate what went well, what could be improved and the structure of your administration. For example, do you currently offer COBRA administration or are you considering bringing COBRA into your offering? Now is the time to start laying the groundwork for your next OE period.
The Cost of Open Enrollment
Administrators choose to either include Open Enrollment in their services or to provide it as an add-on module. Open Enrollment services used to be fairly standardized and predictable, making it easier to administer and bake costs into client agreements. Today, administrators face a more competitive market that forces lower baseline pricing. Many TPAs offer ala carte services in an effort to retain existing and attract new clients. This has also resulted in varying degrees of complex client requirements. Enter: Open Enrollment Option-Based Pricing.
Option-Based Pricing
A pricing model to consider is one based on options + effort. The client can control costs according to their own preferences and budget, and the business is able to ensure that the work is being covered. Administrators often offer a customized open enrollment experience, one that is unique to each customer resulting in work of varying types and sizes. Some ideas:
- Annual renewal fees for rate setup & configuration charged per plan and/or for complex plan setup. Administrators often include 3-5 plan setups annually and charge a per plan fee of $40-$150 per plan thereafter.
- Standard open enrollment kits generally start with a base range of $10-15 per package for standard number of pages for a standard window envelope. Additional pages charged on a per page basis or offering increased package size options.
- Open Enrollment Notice customization fees, either at an increased per package cost or a flat customization fee based on time.
- Envelope fees when enclosures exceed standard envelope sizes.
- Pass-through postage fees based on current USPS rates.
The overall cost of materials should be considered, like paper and printing as well as staff time for customization, generating notices and collating/hand stuffing packages manually. The best practice in this exercise is to explore automation opportunity and electronic capabilities.
Open Enrollment Reimagined
How do you scale with such complexity? Utilizing a platform that leverages automation and electronic handling is the best-case scenario for open enrollment services, so that even a custom offering can still be efficient.
Travisoft’s Open Enrollment module has revolutionized the open enrollment experience for administrators, clients, and participants. With massive flexibility in automation for handling options, clients can customize their desired experience without increasing the administrator’s workload. Having plan summaries or SBCs available online as well as online enrollment, administrators can also reduce paper and postage going in and out of your office – ideal for decentralized and remote workforces. Users can view the enrollment process status in seconds and see the progression through to completion.
These automations are absolute game changers in COBRA open enrollment and just one of the many ways Travisoft helps customers maximize efficiency to strengthen and grow their business and revenue.