HealthJoy Blog

How a Care Navigation Platform Streamlines Open Enrollment

Written by Melanie Powell | September 5, 2024

Open enrollment season is a marathon for HR and benefits professionals. It takes a lot of planning, communication and action to be successful. At HealthJoy, we understand the importance of a smooth open enrollment process for our employer clients as well as employees – and we’re here to help. 

Keep reading to learn more about how HealthJoy streamlines the open enrollment process by bundling an unbundled benefits experience, reducing point solution fatigue, and improving your benefits communications. 

Replace handouts and benefits booklets 

HealthJoy is your go-to resource and partner for open enrollment season. We provide our employer clients with support and valuable tools that can be used leading up to, during and even after open enrollment. With HealthJoy, you can officially say ‘goodbye’ to the clunky, ineffective benefits booklets of the past and move towards a simpler, and much more streamlined process. 

From promotional materials to push notifications, there are several ways that HealthJoy makes the open enrollment process seamless for HR and employees. 

 

Access Promotional Materials in the HealthJoy Dashboard 

The HealthJoy Dashboard is your one stop shop for promotional materials. In order to have a successful open enrollment, it’s crucial that employees know what HealthJoy is, understand what benefits are available to them, and feel prepared to make informed decisions that are best for them and their families. 

Within the HealthJoy Dashboard, you can access resources to help you promote HealthJoy leading up to, during and even after open enrollment – ensuring that every employee understands their benefits options and where to access them within the app. 

The more you communicate with and educate employees prior to open enrollment, the better prepared they will be when the time comes, and the HealthJoy Dashboard is here to help you do that. 

 

Send Open Enrollment Reminders With Broadcaster 

Employees often need a few reminders before they take action. With something as important and time sensitive as benefits enrollment – you don’t want to neglect these reminders. HealthJoy makes sending out employee communications simple and easy. With our newly enhanced Broadcaster feature, HR teams can send out templated or even custom communications to employees via in-app messages or push notifications. 

These reminders are helpful to keep employees engaged in their health and wellness benefits year round, and help increase benefits utilization, but they are especially important during open enrollment. Employees are already checking their mobile devices throughout the day, so it’s easy to get their attention via Broadcaster. 

 

Personalization reduces confusion for members  

One of the most common challenges employees face when it comes to benefits enrollment and engagement is confusion – confusion about what is available to them or how to access the benefits they have. That’s why personalization is so key to the employee benefits experience. 

Personalization is the key to reducing confusion, communicating clearly and driving the desired action from employees. 

 

Members Can View Only the Benefits They Have in the Benefits Wallet

HealthJoy gives each enrolled employee a truly unique benefits experience based on their employer’s benefits offerings, and the benefits they choose to enroll in. We simplify their in-app view by only showing them the benefits they actually have within their benefits wallet. 

Since HealthJoy is personal to the employee, the benefits experience overall is a much clearer process. Looking at all the benefit options, copays and deductibles of the different plans can be overwhelming, and HealthJoy solves that problem by narrowing down the view to only what’s relevant to each unique individual. 

Everything benefits-related is easily found in one place with HealthJoy. This reduces the seemingly ever-increasing problem of point solution fatigue. We bundle an unbundled benefits strategy, making the process much more seamless for employers and employees. 

 

Demystifies Complex Plans

It’s no secret that many employees (and sometimes even HR professionals) don’t fully understand what their benefits truly offer. Health literacy is a real issue in the United States, and it’s not talked about enough.

Pfizer reports that over one third (36%) of Americans have either basic or below basic health literacy, and only 12% of people have what would be considered a “proficient” level of health literacy. 

With that being said, HealthJoy is working to close that gap and improve health literacy among our members. Benefits (particularly medical plans) are complex by nature, and they are often difficult to understand if you aren’t a benefits expert. It’s our job to demystify employee benefits, and to take the guesswork out of navigating complex plan designs.  

We do this by displaying and explaining benefits in simple terms that are easy to understand. For example, when a health plan has a narrow network, it can be difficult for an employee to find a provider that meets their needs on their own. But HealthJoy can take the guesswork out of that process and can make provider recommendations based on that employer’s specific health plan. 

 

Simplifies benefit changes

HealthJoy also simplifies the process for both employers and employees when it’s time for major benefits changes. We understand making a big carrier change like medical, for example, is a huge undertaking for HR. If an employer makes the decision to change carriers or vendors for example, by being vendor agnostic, we make that process as smooth as possible for the employer client and the employee. 

Being vendor agnostic means we can work with the benefits you offer regardless of carrier, network or vendor. We will work with you to make sure your employees have a unique and seamless benefits experience, even if you aren’t offering HealthJoy exclusive benefit programs to your employees. 

Our ability to work with any vendor reduced the administrative burden and headache that would normally fall on the HR team when big plan changes occur. 

 

Employees can access individual human-guided support

Another way HealthJoy reduces administrative burden during (and after) open enrollment is through our combination of technology-driven and human-guided support for members. HR professionals have enough on their plates – especially during open enrollment season – so our goal is to take that burden off their plate. 

 

Get answers to frequently asked questions from JOY

Our virtual assistant, JOY, is an HR team’s first line of defense for delivering excellent service at scale. When employees inevitably have questions about their benefits, they can turn to JOY within the HealthJoy app, first. JOY is most effective for answering simple inquiries and commonly asked benefits questions. 

She works in tandem with our team of healthcare concierges to help employees find the answers to the questions they have about their healthcare. JOY’s employee outreach is always personalized to the individual and is designed to drive specific action, setting your benefits programs up for higher utilization and success. 

This frees up the HR team’s time, and allows them to use their working hours to focus on more high-priority and meaningful work, instead of being bogged down by simple benefits questions. 

 

Speak with one of our healthcare concierges 24/7 

JOY works closely with our healthcare concierge team. This team of experts is available to every HealthJoy member 24/7/365 to answer the more complex questions that need a personal touch and special care. 

This is a great resource for members because they have round-the-clock access to personalized assistance with their benefits, meaning they don’t have to wait until the next business day to ask their question. And this helps HR teams and benefits professionals as well. HealthJoy’s healthcare concierges serve as employees’ go-to source of information when they need to speak to a human – without having to go to HR. 

This is just another way that we work to ensure an HR team has the dedicated time needed to focus on open enrollment and all that comes with it. Want to learn more about how HealthJoy supports benefits brokers and employers through open enrollment? 

Download our report to understand the benefits of a connected healthcare navigation platform.