In the news release, Employers and Health Plans Solve
Pandemic-Era Health and Benefits Administration Challenges Through
Technology, issued 15-Feb-2021 by
Benefitfocus, Inc. over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company
that changes have been made to the press release. The complete,
corrected release follows:
Employers and Health Plans Solve Pandemic-Era Health and Benefits
Administration Challenges Through Technology Benefitfocus platform
delivers administrative ease with direct impact on health care
costs; industry leading customer satisfaction
CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a
review of performance metrics and customer feedback, Benefitfocus,
Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), an industry-leading benefits technology
platform that simplifies benefits administration for employers,
health plans and brokers, shares several key findings
from its most recent open enrollment (OE) period. The findings
demonstrate the value of a comprehensive benefits platform solution
that provides employers and health plans with greater
administrative efficiencies and enables lower health care
costs.
Highlights of the findings include:
- Increased purchases of hospital indemnity and voluntary life
insurance offerings by consumers, believed to be driven by the
health impact of COVID-19
- Adjustments to enrollment and management practices, including
payment methods, to address changes in the financial condition of
both employers and employees
- Elevated use of multi-channel communications to employees,
reflecting the rise in remote working and acceptance of digital
forms of communications
- Greater adoption of multi-channel engagement techniques to
serve the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce.
"The most recent OE season demonstrated that our platform and
the services associated with it solved our customers' challenges.
In many ways, it was our best OE ever," said Steve Swad, president
and CEO of Benefitfocus. "Our investments to achieve operational
excellence significantly improved our customers' experience.
Employers and health plans were able to increase the efficiency of
their operations to meet the needs of their employees and members.
I am particularly proud of the high levels of customer satisfaction
our team earned."
Benefitfocus' CSO team received a customer satisfaction (CSAT)
score of over 93 percent, well above the industry standard of 80-85
percent. During the final four months of 2020, just under 16
million people completed their open enrollment selection of
benefits using Benefitfocus' services.
Observations from 2020
Hospital Indemnity and Voluntary Life
Offerings
With COVID-19 affecting millions of Americans,
employers sought additional benefits to help employees confront the
impact of a pandemic that often led to hospitalization.
Benefitfocus saw an increase in the purchase of hospital indemnity
benefits and voluntary life insurance offerings through its Benefit
Catalog.
Adjustments to Enrollment and Management
Practices
Numerous employers were forced to reduce
operations or temporarily shut down and many small businesses faced
a cash flow shortage. They needed alternatives to premium payment
methods to continue to provide coverage for their employees. One
solution adopted by benefits administrators and health plans was to
add credit cards to the list of payment options.
Elevated Use of Multi-Channel
Communications
With fewer in-person discussions,
employers needed other ways to answer employees' questions about
enrollment decisions. Numerous employers turned to chat
capabilities. A leading real estate investment trust increased chat
utilization by more than 80 percent, while a major food producer
converted 90 percent of employee enrollment interactions to
chat.
Meeting the Needs of an Increasingly Diverse
Workforce
With benefits decisions taking on greater
urgency in such a turbulent year, meeting the needs of users across
demographic and generational groups was vital and placed a greater
emphasis on creating a seamless enrollment process, especially when
dealing with large numbers of users. A major higher education
system conducted its first OE on the Benefitfocus platform, with
65,000 people — both employees and retirees — going through
enrollment. More than 80 percent of the system's 45,000 survey
respondents gave the highest satisfaction scores to their benefits
experience.
Market-Leading Industry Trends and Insights
Benefitfocus has a distinct line-of-sight into the enrollment and
administration practices of over 150,000 employers in the United States, representing over
25,000,000 Americans served through a health plan issuer or
directly with benefits providers.
Benefitfocus' successful support of employers and health plans
provides insights into emerging trends through product and service
delivery. These trends will be prominently discussed during
the company's upcoming annual industry conference, One Place 2021, on March
2 & 3.
Resources to Evaluate Open Enrollment
Benefitfocus is
committed to enhancing the year-round benefits enrollment
experience and the full range of activity across the benefits
ecosystem. It offers a Resource Center to help health plans
and employers apply the best practices for planning, executing and
monitoring their benefits programs, and drive change across the
benefits industry. Its OE-specific content includes a
scorecard to evaluate OE performance and expert
insight outlining the criteria to use to determine if it met
targeted goals.
Connect with Benefitfocus
Like Benefitfocus on
Facebook
Follow @benefitfocus on Twitter
Follow Benefitfocus on LinkedIn
Follow Benefitfocus on Instagram
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT) unifies the entire benefits
industry through innovative technology solutions that bring
efficiency, cost savings and simplicity to employee benefits
administration. Our powerful cloud-based software, data-driven
insights and thoughtfully designed services help employers,
insurance brokers, health plans and suppliers address the
complexity of benefits enrollment and engagement, while bringing
easier access to health, wealth and lifestyle products
through a world-class benefits experience. Our mission is
simple: to improve lives with benefits. Learn more
at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.
DISCLAIMER REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Except for historical information, all of the statements,
expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are
forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially
from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially include: volatility and uncertainty in the global
economy and financial markets in light of the evolving COVID-19
pandemic and uncertainties arising from the recent U.S. elections;
our continuing losses and need to achieve GAAP profitability;
fluctuations in our financial results; our ability to maintain our
culture, retain and motivate qualified personnel; the immature and
volatile market for our products and services; risks related to
changing healthcare and other applicable regulations; risks
associated with acquisitions; cyber-security risks; the need to
innovate and provide useful products and services; our ability to
compete effectively; privacy, security and other risks associated
with our business; and the other risk factors set forth from time
to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of
charge within the Investor Relations section of the Benefitfocus
website at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec-filings or upon
request from our Investor Relations Department. Benefitfocus
assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these
forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
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SOURCE Benefitfocus, Inc.