May 1, 2018
Q: Just what is EDE?
A: EDE stands for Enhanced Direct Enrollment. Today, when consumers shop for health insurance on a third-party site in one of the 27 federally facilitated marketplace states, they go through two separate redirects (known as the “double redirect”). Here’s what that means. Let’s use our consumer website, GetInsured.com, as an example. A consumer selects a plan and begins enrollment on GetInsured.com, but at the end of the enrollment process, up until now, they were brought to healthcare.gov to confirm their eligibility for individual marketplace coverage, premium tax credits, and cost-sharing reduction payments. This is the first “redirect”. After eligibility is confirmed, they were then sent back to GetInsured.com (the second redirect) to complete enrollment.
The difference in look and feel between the two sites is often times confusing to consumers, the process is cumbersome, and the experience can be very time-consuming. According to industry observers, drop-off rates during the double redirect may be as high as 95 percent.
EDE is a new CMS standard that allows the consumer to stay on one site from start to finish, eliminating the need to enter information twice, and streamlining the process.
Q: Why is this good for consumers?
A: It’s in our nature to procrastinate, find a convenient excuse, and avoid shopping for health insurance, particularly if we are healthy. EDE enables a seamless shopping and enrollment experience for consumers, making the health insurance enrollment process much simpler and less time-consuming. The excuse that the enrollment process is cumbersome just went away.
Q: Why is it good for brokers and carriers?
A: With drop-off rates estimated to be so incredibly high due to the dreaded double redirect, the upside for brokers and carriers is significant. All of those unfinished enrollments translate into lower enrollments for brokers as well as carriers; by creating an easier enrollment experience, we would expect brokers and carriers to see increased sign-ups. For insurers, in particular, deploying an easier enrollment experience means an opportunity to attract younger and healthier members who don’t need coverage badly enough to deal with the frustration of the double redirect. And for brokers, this, of course, represents an increase in commission income.
Q: Is there anything different about your technology versus other tech companies offering EDE services?
A: Our EDE technology is a natural extension of our extensive work with brokers and is based on our experience working with both CMS and carriers. The solution has both an elegant and modern UI and is enterprise-grade, tested to perform in high volume enrollment environments.
Q: How easy is EDE to implement?
A: Brokers, insurers, and even states who opted for using the healthcare.gov platform can choose to develop their own EDE technology. That is, of course, a long and arduous process. Instead, we offer a white-labeled solution that is easy to implement, CMS compliant, and will be ready for OE 2019. We estimate that you can drop our EDE solution into your website with an average development time of approximately two weeks. We handle the heavy lifting and ensure your solution is solid and secure.
Q: When should carriers and brokers acquire the GetInsured EDE services in order to be ready for the 2019 open enrollment period?
A: Working backward from OE 2019, we need to have agreements in place before Summer 2018 in order to be ready to go-live in time.
