Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), a leading cloud-based benefits management platform and services provider, today announced significant enhancements to the BENEFITFOCUS MarketPlace™ for Carriers, its platform for personalized health insurance enrollment and automated administration. Medical carriers will have one platform to support them, from beginning-stage business rating and quoting to end-stage billing and payments, while serving the diverse needs of their customers.
The announcement came during Carrier Place, Benefitfocus’ executive forum for leaders from the nation’s top health insurance carriers as well as life and ancillary benefits providers, held at Kiawah Island, S.C.
“Medical carriers are the driving force behind our entire benefits ecosystem. Over the last two decades, we’ve built trusted and deep relationships with our carrier community, empowering them to better serve their customers. The innovation and expanded capabilities of MarketPlace for Carriers is the direct result of their feedback,” said Ray August, President & CEO of Benefitfocus. “For the first time ever, carriers will have an end-to-end quote-to-pay capability that automates everyone in the benefits value chain and gives consumers easy access to trusted voluntary benefits via an all-new smart and intuitive mobile experience. The enhancements being developed for MarketPlace for Carriers represent over $50 million of investment that Benefitfocus makes in our platform every year.”
MarketPlace for Carriers will create efficiencies across the benefits value chain with a single automated platform from quote-to-pay, including four components: rating and quoting, enrollment and administration, billing and payments and data exchange. MarketPlace for Carriers will effectively connect and enable brokers by providing an integrated product catalog with rating and quoting capabilities. The platform will also allow both carriers and brokers to manage their entire business portfolio with real-time dashboards to monitor billing, participation, enrollment status and other key performance indicators. With MarketPlace for Carriers, brokers will be able to quote and onboard new clients efficiently while also delivering the HR and administrative services requested by their clients, all on the same platform and with a consistent experience. The Benefitfocus Platform underlying MarketPlace for Carriers is being delivered as a cloud service with real-time data capabilities via EDI and APIs that ensure world-class data accuracy for each Benefitfocus customer.
The end result is one platform that will create value in three ways:
Optimized workflow: Carriers can increase operational efficiency via a single platform purpose built for medical carriers with automation and real-time integrations across systems while equipping their broker community with the sales, management and service delivery tools they require.
Growth-focused opportunities: Carriers will have the opportunity to differentiate their benefits portfolio with BenefitsPlace, Benefitfocus’ exclusive catalog of industry-leading health, wealth, property and lifestyle products. With BenefitsPlace, a carrier can capture market share and create a competitive advantage when selling to both self-insured and national accounts.
Transformed business through AI: The automation and integration of the entire quote-to-pay lifecycle provided by the Benefitfocus platform will help accelerate and transform a carrier’s business. MarketPlace for Carriers integrates an AI-powered experience for each consumer via the BenefitSAIGE™ AI engine. BenefitSAIGE provides meaningful guidance to consumers throughout enrollment and throughout the year with Smart Moments and Insights to highlight benefits reflecting the personal interests of each consumer.
“The capabilities being developed in MarketPlace for Carriers reflect our deep commitment to the carrier market and the insights gained from our carrier customers who serve more than 150,000 employers,” said Laura Gorry, Vice President and General Manager at Benefitfocus. “We are excited to offer a platform that clearly differentiates our medical carriers, enables their brokers, serves their employers and engages each employee with a unique, personalized benefits experience. MarketPlace for Carriers goes beyond benefit administration and enrollment with insight-driven Smart Moments and personalized communications.”
For more information on Marketplace for Carriers, click here.
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT) unifies the entire U.S. benefits industry on a single technology platform to protect consumers’ health, wealth, property and lifestyle. Our powerful cloud-based software, data-driven insights and thoughtfully-designed services, enable employers, insurance brokers, carriers and suppliers to simplify the complexity of benefits administration and deliver a world-class benefits experience. Learn more at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results or performance might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: our ability to compete effectively; the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; management of growth; the immature and volatile nature of the market for our products and services; our ability to maintain our culture and recruit and retain qualified personnel; risks related to changing healthcare and other applicable regulations; privacy; security and other risks associated with our business; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of charge within the Investor Relations section of the Benefitfocus website at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec-filings or upon request from our investor relations department. Benefitfocus assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.