Leveraging an Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) pathway helps make the quote-to-enrollment process for ACA-approved plans less painful and more profitable.
Keep reading for a full understanding of EDE and why insurance agents for health insurance need it now more than ever to thrive.
What Is Enhanced Direct Enrollment in Insurance?
Enhanced Direct Enrollment is a health insurance pathway developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that allows insurance shoppers to buy health insurance through federal exchanges rather than going directly to government-sponsored websites or contacting a call center.
How Does It Affect the Enrollment Process?
Making ACA enrollments more accessible and easier to navigate is a top concern for lawmakers, who have invested millions of tax dollars in the Marketplace's success.
This is because ACA enrollments are highly prevalent right now. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “The Biden-Harris Administration announced 21.3 million people selected an Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace plan during the 2024 Open Enrollment Period. Total plan selections include more than five million people — about a fourth — who are new to the Marketplaces and 16 million people who renewed their coverage.”
In 2021, Pres. Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that prioritized improving service delivery and the customer experience across 35 high-impact service providers in 17 Federal Agencies, including the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS).
The order laid out a clear framework for each agency to provide a “simple, seamless, and secure customer experience” for their customers. For health insurance brokerages and agencies, this is primarily achieved by supporting and continuously improving online capabilities.
Key focus areas include providing enhanced digital tools and streamlining enrollment options for customer segments the order lays out, including:
- Medicare-eligible retirees
- Maternal and early pediatric patients
- Survivors of natural disasters
- Veteran Healthcare beneficiaries
Insurance businesses that have already begun investing in enhanced digital enrollment tools and customer management platforms will be able to more quickly align with the CMS and other affected Federal agencies that may call into action more orders.
Those who haven’t yet begun taking steps to increase their digital footprint, however, are more likely to find themselves behind the curve.
Why Insurance Agents Need EDE
Improves the Enrollment Experience
While some may believe there is a downseason for selling insurance after The Open Enrollment and Annual Enrollment Periods, that’s simply not the case.
In fact, shoppers who missed this past OEP deadline may still be eligible to enroll in new on-exchange health plans – as long as they meet certain special enrollment criteria, such as getting married, losing a job, or having children.
This creates new sales opportunities for both insurance brokers and agents but also further highlights the need for insurance businesses to implement technology that creates a seamless and simplified process across the board.
The best way to do that is by working with an Enhanced Direct Enrollment-friendly partner like Quotit.
Competitive Advantages
Selling health insurance is competitive, and your insurance business needs every resource and tool to help you thrive in your market.
Enhanced Direct Enrollment is not only a helpful tool for clients but also a very real competitive advantage that empowers you to:
- Optimize your customer experience with a wider range of coverage options
- Maximize the efficiency of your enrollment process for on-exchange plans
- Increase customer retention rates through superior service
- Manage ACA clients year-round, including for qualifying events and special enrollment periods
- Create a seamless and unified user experience on your website, allowing shoppers to start and finish their enrollment from one URL
- Provide the most relevant data that helps shoppers find the exact coverage for their current needs
- Deliver unparalleled convenience of helping customers remotely, over a video conference, or a phone call
- Upload important documentation of shoppers with just a click of a button
- And much more
Quotit's EDE Agent Dashboard Benefits and Features
Keeping tabs on your Marketplace clients and their progress is crucial. Quotit understands the challenges you face, which is why we're thrilled to introduce the EDE Agent Dashboard.
Benefits
Leveraging our EDE Agent Dashboard not only maximizes your conversion rate for both over and under-65 prospects, it also provides the best overall experience for them while shopping.
This powerful tool simplifies the process of tracking your clients' actions and tasks, all in one convenient location, delivering the following benefits:
- Easily show prospects and customers different plan options side-by-side
- Give shoppers access to comprehensive directories to see if their preferred doctor or specialist aligns with their coverage
- Compare all available plans with the financial subsidy already calculated
Features
Effortlessly support your clients year-round: Quotit EDE empowers you to handle binder payments, document uploads, and application changes seamlessly.
Easily manage your Marketplace applications: Join our Marketplace referral program to expand your business, organize your Marketplace applications, and streamline how you manage them.
Monitor enrollment statuses from one location: Organize and track the enrollment progress of each client/prospect across your entire agency with statuses like “Application In Progress” and “Action Needed” from one dashboard.
Get More Resources Designed To Drive More Health Insurance Sales
To get started with EDE, you’ll need a third-party provider like Quotit, which offers the advantage of a powerful quoting engine and no carrier restrictions on EDE enrollments – as well as many other insurance agent tools and features.
EDE is a free service with Quotit. If you’re an existing Quotit client but haven’t used EDE yet, please contact our customer care team today!
If you’re not already a customer, connect with us today and request a demo!
