There has been quite a bit of change taking place in health care and employee benefits as we move toward open enrollment this year. Most brokers are implementing some of the more important things like having a good strategy, planning ahead, polling employees about what they like and don't like, and getting benchmarking data to see what others in the industry are doing.

That said, one of the things I am thinking about is what might be new, and what kind of substantive changes can we expect moving forward into 2019 and beyond?

For the small group market, the Affordable Care Act continues to undergo significant changes under the current administration. For example, the Cadillac Plan tax was delayed from 2020 to 2022. Also, earlier in the year, the administration announced that they are giving states the authority to cut back on the 10 essential health benefits mandated by the ACA. In addition, there are new rules that expanded both association health plans, and short-term medical plans, in June and August, respectively.

Knowing that the ACA is still the law of the land, the question is what impact will any of this have on open enrollment? Not much.

So what trends are top of mind for as we move forward when thinking about open enrollment? Or asked another way, what are some really cool things that could make open enrollment more exciting in the near future?

It's all about the data.

1. Data allows us to make better decisions

It is still pretty early on, and we have been talking about it for a few decades; why don't we have better transparency in pricing and engaging with our benefits? Many new technologies continue to work at disrupting and improving what we do when it comes to engaging–but we are still very, very early relative to other industries. There are a number of online resources and programs that are attempting to help us maximize our health care dollar. Below are some ways I am seeing the market evolving.

2. Transparency around pricing provides more insight and education

Startups like GoodRX, which give some insight into RX costs as well as discounts, are not only easy to use and on their way to being fun, but give us some feel for what transparency could be like. Healthcare Bluebook is also making some strides into giving us some idea about costs. And if PokitDok continues to gain traction and build a network of startups that can mash up their data, we should get some more great tools. But again, these are all very early and we need much more.

3. What you do on social media may come back to haunt you

It's mostly happening in personal and commercial lines today, however, it is coming. Admiral started using Facebook profiles to assess a young driver's risk profile. Another startup, Carpe Data, is using social media to help insurers make better decisions. But again, this process is in its infancy, and it will be interesting to see where it goes.

4. Keep a watch on your credit score, it just might end up affecting your insurance rates

There are a number of folks using data sets for better pricing in the group benefits space. For example, Transunion has some data analytics that are beginning to look at a credit score as a possible better predictor of life insurance rates than a health application.

We're living in a rapidly evolving world when it comes to healthcare and employee benefits. In an industry that is historically slow to change, it's all the more intriguing to see where the new trends in data will take us and how insurers will use that data either for the public's good, or not.

More insights into 2019:

Jason Andrew is CEO and co-founder of Limelight Health.

Instant Insights /

Open enrollment: 4 trends to watch for in the coming year

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