The document discusses how brokers can leverage benefits marketplace platforms to grow their business and better serve clients in today's changing insurance landscape. It outlines how platforms allow brokers to expand offerings, reach new markets, and improve operations. Brokers are advised to carefully evaluate platforms using a set of questions provided to ensure proper fit and avoid potential pitfalls. When implemented correctly, a platform can help brokers differentiate themselves, enhance customer service, and take advantage of new opportunities in health insurance.

1. A New Game Plan:
Brokers and Benefits Marketplace Platforms

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In today’s insurance and benefits marketplace1
, consumers have one major thing on their mind —
how much is it going to cost? More specifically, how much value are they really getting from the
dollars spent on health care benefits? Benefits marketplace consumers, including individuals,
employers, employees, and brokers, are actively looking for better ways to shop, enroll and manage
health, financial and ancillary benefits. For brokers, whose role is far from just transactional, a
benefits marketplace platform presents an opportunity to diversify products and services and
expand relationships by adding value to dollars spent by consumers. Leveraging a benefits
marketplace technology to maximize these opportunities is smart, but it needs to align with your
client needs and overall business strategy.
THE EVOLVING RELATIONSHIP
During America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) 2015 National Health Policy conference in Washington,
D.C., Secretary Burwell credited brokers, consultants and other industry professionals as significant reasons
for the nearly 11.7 million Americans (excluding Medicaid expansion and other coverage provisions) who
either enrolled or renewed their health plan through a benefits marketplace during the open enrollment
period. Brokers deliver expertise and a level of experience in the health benefits industry that can’t be
searched online or accessed through a busy Human Resources department. The demand for live support
and industry expertise has never been greater and the role of the broker has never been more important as
rapid changes continue to unfold.
Traditionally, the primary role for a broker has been to mitigate the rising cost of health care by looking for
alternate or modified solutions that align with their client’s budget. Although this strategy offers a siloed
approach to solving client needs, it has been the widely accepted practice. Today, with the implementation
of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mandatory insurance requirements, and shifting insurance product
designs, that traditional role of the broker has dramatically changed.
As benefits marketplaces soar in popularity and the definition of a “Private Exchange” evolves, brokers
need to understand and embrace new tech-enabled shopping and enrollment platforms and how they fit
into their business strategy. More importantly, brokers have the opportunity to grow market share by using
these platforms to differentiate, enhance how they do business, and
establish themselves as trusted advisors to their clients.
1
A benefits marketplace technology platform is a software system designed to help
consumers shop, compare, and enroll in health care and ancillary benefits in one
location.

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THE BUILDING BLOCKS
Building trust and respect in any relationship is
not easy. In fact, building and maintaining positive
relationships with individuals, employers, and
insurance carriers, in a post-ACA world, has become
more challenging. How does a broker build client
relationships and long-term value in a marketplace
that is evolving faster than the last viral video you
watched on YouTube? According to hCentive’s
CEO and Co-Founder, Sanjay Singh, the answer
is simple — “embrace innovation. Don’t give
into the impulse to continue doing business the
same way you always have. Doing so will only
show your unwillingness, or perhaps an inability,
to stand back and really look at the bigger, long-term picture — how can brokers better manage the
post-ACA shopping and enrollment process for their clients in the most cost effective and efficient
way.”
A benefits marketplace will allow brokers to not only operate effectively in the new world of health benefits,
but also take advantage of distinct opportunities that a technology platform offers.
When implementing a benefits marketplace as part of a business strategy with clients, brokers must
also be prepared to adapt to an expanded role that includes providing compliance education and
services, technology consulting, and much more. We’re entering the era of transparency, relevancy, and
consumerism where everything will be driven and linked back to customer satisfaction. A recent article by
the Institute of Healthcare Consumerism touches on how brokers can succeed in a tumultuous market in
2015 and beyond – providing four lessons for brokers and advisors on building a strategy for the future.
As brokers embrace innovation and the concept of an expanded role, the next step is to assess their current
enrollment processes and current technology. This will allow the broker to determine whether or not a
benefits marketplace solution will enhance the way they’re currently conducting and managing business.
Conducting a comprehensive assessment and identifying areas for improvement is a crucial step. The
broker’s evaluation will provide a benchmark that can be used to determine if a benefits marketplace is
the most appropriate business strategy to be meet marketplace demands. It’s important to remember that
not all benefits marketplaces are created equal, so choosing a benefits marketplace technology platform
that’s the best fit for your business strategy can be time consuming and confusing. The technology you
choose should have the right mix of resources, flexibility and configuration. When considering a technology
platform, brokers should be looking for specific capabilities, including:
• A digital storefront that offers higher visibility with custom branding options and automated
communications or notifications
• Speed to market
• Connectivity to the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) and insurance carriers that eliminates
manual enrollments
• Employer choice with multi-carrier, multi-product benefits packages such as health plan, dental, vision,
life, long or short-term disability, critical illness, etc.
• Enrollment administration for any size employer

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• Navigating expanded choice with decision support and online/telephonic educational resources that
improves the consumer’s knowledge of benefits and choices
• Ability to expand consultative expertise and engage in guided selling, i.e. product recommendations,
subsidy calculator, etc.
WHAT NEXT?
Everyone loves progress, but let’s be honest – no one really likes change. Change is hard and it’s
even harder when it’s forced upon us. The truth is change
requires people to navigate uncharted waters and make
assumptions about trends that really have no burden of proof.
That’s why it’s important that we create our own assessments,
based on our own expertise, to determine the best course of
action. Once a broker has determined a benefits marketplace
is the best course of action to improve their overall customer
satisfaction and business strategy, it’s important to map out
these next steps:
1. Assessing the challenges and potential pitfalls of
implementing a new technology platform
2. Determining the greatest opportunities and how the
returns from those opportunities outweigh any major risks
associated with the technology
3. Timeline to implement this new technology and what
financial and/or administrative support needed
4. How best to communicate the vision and value in order to
shift clients toward adopting this new technology platform
BENEFITS MARKETPLACE PLATFORM —
ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
When considering any new technology implementation, one
should always weigh the challenges and pitfalls of making the
shift against all the opportunities that shift will present. Therefore,
before making a decision to leverage a benefits marketplace platform, brokers should ask themselves the
following questions:
1. If I choose to leverage this new platform to grow my business, who/what could possibly steer me off path?
2. Would a benefits marketplace be in competition with me? Is my benefits marketplace provider also writing
business directly to individual and employer clients?

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3. Does my benefits marketplace provider take over my clients once they are enrolled? Or am I still their point of
contact for Life Status Changes and the purchasing of additional coverage?
4. Does my firm act as the Broker of Record? Or does the benefits marketplace provider?
5. Does the benefits marketplace provider just provide leads? Are those same leads also going to competing
brokers in my market?
6. Has the benefits marketplace assured me they aren’t running a manual process behind the scene?
7. Does the benefits marketplace support trends in my market such as flexibilities in funding strategies — defined
contribution v. defined benefits, self-insured v. fully-insured, etc.?
8. Does the benefits marketplace allow me to capture part time employees for individual enrollments through a
seamless process?
9. Does the marketplace offer a “healthy” selection of health, financial and ancillary products relevant to individual
and employer clients in my territory or market? And, are the carriers offering these products pre-integrated into the
platform, ready to go?
BENEFITS MARKETPLACE PLATFORM — OPPORTUNITIES
You’ve taken the appropriate steps to evaluate a shift to a tech-enabled benefits marketplace platform. Let’s
now look at the opportunities that will enable you to achieve the results you desire such as improved customer
satisfaction, long-term value, stronger relationships, and growth. More specifically those opportunities include:
• Expanding your client’s enrollment offerings. Giving your clients and/or their employees the opportunity to
enroll in ancillary products such as short and long-term disability, life, health savings account, and more, in addition
to medical and dental benefits. What makes this truly unique is the “single platform” design or “one stop shop”
approach that will help your client’s see the value in working with you.
• Be the trusted industry expert. The definition of industry expert is rapidly taking on a new meaning for
consumers. Brokers can use tools within a benefits marketplace to be pro-active in their approach to engaging or
educating current and prospective clients.
• Reach new markets. Believe it or not, implementing new technology with an agency marketing plan could
bring brokers a whole demographic set they may not have been reaching in the past. With white label2
software,
individuals or groups can now easily find you, your knowledge, and your offerings through expanded marketing
efforts or a simple keyword search.
• Do more, better. With a benefits marketplace brokers can use their digital storefront to easily renew or enroll
clients, send electronic notifications, track applications, outreach to prospects, connect with healthcare.gov for
subsidy qualifications, and more. Having all your resources in a single-platform will improve a brokers overall
capabilities and customer service.
2
White label software refers to the utilization of an existing software application that’s customized to reflect a brand in the marketplace. This software can
then be used to support or promote the customer’s business offerings.

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THE TAKEAWAY
As the ACA tide continues to fluctuate with evolving models of care, shifting product enrollments,
and carrier consolidation it’s imperative that brokers maintain a strong presence in the marketplace
and continue to be a trusted advisor for their clients. Bottom line: as the market grows, so do the
opportunities for brokers. By accelerating the adoption of tech-enabled shopping, enrollment, and
benefits management, brokers will have ultimate control over product diversification, customer service,
operational costs, and therefore market share. Health care reform is here to stay — and that’s a fact.
Is a benefits marketplace platform the right solution for you? If not, how are you planning to innovate
in the marketplace as it evolves? At hCentive we can show you how to make a benefits marketplace
work for you and your long-term strategy.
ABOUT HCENTIVE
At hCentive, our mission is to empower people to gain access to health benefits through intuitive and
personalized tech-enabled platforms. We are the industry leader in public and private exchange solutions
that simplify the distribution and management of health and ancillary benefits. Our suite of solutions serves
government agencies, insurance carriers, and brokers. Our WebInsure™ Benefits marketplace platform
is pre-integrated with multiple carriers and range of benefits products and built specifically for brokers to
differentiate and efficiently engage, educate, enroll and retain consumers and employers. To learn more, visit
www.hcentive.com.
@hcentive
hcentive
hcentive
HCentive-US
Sales@hcentive.com
800-984-7952
www.hcentive.com
hCentive Inc.
12355 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 400
Reston, Virginia 20191