Project Description

Challenge

Preferred Agency Network is an Integra Insurance affiliate in Baton Rouge, LA. They specialize in providing insurance agency services, including health insurance enrollment for policies linked to the Affordable Care Act. In 2015, they enrolled the single largest number of applicants in ACA policies in the state of Louisiana. However, the process was highly inefficient and time consuming due to the use of offline forms and data procurement. In addition, applicants were unable to view policy options and rates online, having to call the agency for provider quotes and related information. As a result, Preferred Agency had significantly inflated labor costs due to the large number of call center agents and manual data entry tasks. Considering Preferred Agency management wanted to add Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi ACA policies in 2016, they needed a better way to do enrollment.

Solution

We worked closely with the Preferred Agency enrollment management team to build a sophisticated .NET web application to manage enrollments before the start of 2016 enrollment period. The web application includes an extremely easy to use front-end interface for applicants and a full-featured back-end operations console for Preferred Agency agents and managers that is integrated with their Salesforce accounts. The application is designed for FAST enrollment and application management, aimed at greatly reducing Preferred Agency’s labor costs and also increasing revenue with more enrollments in the limited-window ACA enrollment period.

We delivered the following front-end website features for applicant users:

  • Browse ACA health insurance policies and policy details for LA, TX, AL, and MS
  • View ACA policy premiums with applicant-specific subsidies
  • Complete policy applications online with registered accounts, saving A LOT of data entry hours for agents
  • Request immediate assistance from an agent in completing an application
  • Track the status of their application after submission thru enrollment by agent

We delivered the following back-end web application features for Preferred Agency users:

  • Agents can view, sort, search, edit, and archive applications
  • Agents can manage applications by status, and change the status of an application as it advances through the pipeline towards completed enrollment
  • Agents can follow up with applicants who started an application but did not complete it
  • Agents can view completed applications and application data in their Salesforce accounts
  • Agents can quickly provide quotes and complete applications for users calling into the Preferred Agency call center
  • Managers can assign new applications to agents for enrollment
  • Admins can add, edit, and remove agent and manager users

After Preferred Agency receives federal approval to become a designated Web broker, we plan to complete a full integration with the ACA www.healthcare.gov website before the 2017 enrollment period to completely automate the online enrollment process.