According to The Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, the gains in health insurance coverage made since the Affordable Care Act (ACA)  passed in 2010 are now beginning to reverse. ACA enrollment has declined and insurance coverage seems to be worsening year over year. 

Why is ACA enrollment declining?

1. Congress is lacking any legislative agendas to help improve specific weaknesses in the ACA

2. The current administration’s political viewpoints have exploited those weaknesses in a number of ways:

  •  Federal funds for advertising and outreach have been slashed significantly leading up to and during Open Enrollment periods
  • The Federal government decreasing the Open Enrollment period
  • Sending out confusing, or unclear communications on the status of the law

With the current erosion happening before our eyes, it appears that further damage to insurance coverage in 2019 could worsen. Due to the repeal of the individual mandate penalty included in the 2017 ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ‘ law, it increases the availability of insurance policies that do not comply with ACA minimum benefit standards and support for Medicaid work requirements.

aca enrollment

Some key findings:

  • The uninsured rate among working-age people, between the ages of 19 and 64, drifted up from 12.7 percent in 2016 to 15.5 percent in 2018. Four million people lost coverage
  • The uninsured rate among adults in states that did not expand Medicaid rose 21.9 percent
  • The uninsured rate increased among adults age 35 and older
  • The uninsured rate remains highest in southern states

To read the full report, click here.

As benefits brokers continue to navigate the destruction of the ACA and other enrollment issues due to political posturing, non-existent funds and resources, poor communication and overall confusion on the law as it stands currently; they can stonewall, or slow down the bleeding of non-participating employee enrollment to their clients by offering a human capital management (HCM) platform to help improve communication and overall engagement during OE periods.

Brokers can focus specifically on the automated modules directly aimed at improving the open enrollment process, navigating ACA compliance, Benefits Management and more.

aca enrollment

Improving employee engagement during open enrollment with HCM tech

Benefits brokers who partner their offerings with HRIS software—and its automated modules—can offer to their clients a solution to help increase employee engagement and communication, navigate the challenges of ACA compliance and seamlessly handle the transfer of employee selections to appropriate carriers during open enrollment.

With all data corralled in a single-source database, information can flow freely internally and/or externally to third-party vendors via integrations. HCM technology promotes efficiencies to both end users and administrators by automating manual tasks, reducing the need for paper, customizing impactful reports, saving hours of time, money and more.

Let’s not forget, Benefits Brokers win by improving their overall sales and by providing their clients with new technology that can scale to meet the needs of a companies’ ever-changing requirements over the long-term. By providing your clients with HCM technology that works, over time, they will continue to want to use it, as well as potentially add more modules to improve other areas of their operations.

recruitment process

Improving employee engagement and communication during open enrollment with Employee Self-Service

An Employee Self-Service (Employee Portal) module is an excellent way to increase the engagement and overall communication of all open enrollment activities to everyone in a company. Administrators can easily send out digital OE communications via email, as well as in the portal, in the form of infographics, one-pagers, brochures, links, videos and more.

In turn, employees are then alerted about said communications where they will be able to access it anywhere and anytime during the period. Administrators will have the ability to assign workflows to all staff to during OE to keep them on track. With the combination of access to crucial OE information as well as being able to keep track of important due dates, employees are better informed and can confidently make their selections with ease.

Through Passive Enrollment, it allowed HR admins to not have to monitor their employees as much during the OE process, which in turn, let them focus on more business-critical tasks during this time. Passive OE also helped employees stay on track with their selections, saving them time overall and by keeping them in compliance step-by-step through the process.

Find out the other amazing things an Employee Self-Service module can do for your business today by clicking here.

Many organizations need a sophisticated, cloud-based solution to manage various processes in the following areas of HR:

  • Benefits Management
  • ACA Compliance
  • Employee self-service (Employee Portal)
  • Payroll Processing
  • Recruiting Applicant Tracking
  • Time and Attendance
  • Reporting
  • Performance Management and Feedback Delivery
  • Online Learning Management
  • Succession Planning
  • Employee Onboarding
  • Surveys
  • Job Posting and more

The Arcoro cloud-based, automated full HCM platform is the perfect option for benefits brokers who need a strong HCM, benefits management and ACA compliance partner to combine within their current benefits offerings. With seamless integrations to top carriers such as Unum, Aflac, BlueCross BlueShield and more, consultants partnering with InfintyHR have seen their opportunity-share rise in the market they are chasing.

Arcoro excels with organizations that have 100-10,000 employees.

Related Reading:

The Brokers’ Guide to HR Automation

Explaining High-Deductible Plans to Employees

How to Improve Employee Engagement During Open Enrollment

5 Rising Voluntary Benefits Employers Should Offer to Their Employees

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