Post Open Enrollment, Now What?

2024 is officially in the rear-view mirror and with it, the stress and long-hours of open enrollment season. As we kick off 2025, it is beneficial to take a moment to reflect and think of the experiences and lessons we have learned from the most recent open enrollment season.

While we find an open, honest dialogue with your team to be the easiest way to evaluate, some organizations opt for anonymous surveys or scorecards to promote psychological safety among the team.

Regardless of the method you choose, here are some helpful questions to get you started as you evaluate your organization’s most recent enrollment:

• Overall, how would you rate this open enrollment season?
• Were employees engaged? How can you tell?
• Do you feel your employees understood the benefits that were offered to them?
• When looking at available data points, did your employees have more or fewer benefits-related questions when compared to previous years?
• What was the most common frustration, question, or concern received from employees during open enrollment season? How can we make adjustments for this next year?

Back to Enrollment Basics

While it’s still fresh in our minds and as we begin planning for next open enrollment season, let’s review what types of enrollment environments may suit your organization and its employees best.

Active Enrollment

Active enrollments require employees to re-elect each of their benefits annually – even if they are making no changes to their enrollment. This approach ensures employees actively review their coverage options, allowing them to make any adjustments to accommodate any life changes, enroll in new offerings, or take into consideration any major plan updates that may impact them. Active enrollment can oftentimes lead to increased employee engagement, better alignment of coverage with current needs, and reduce enrollment in outdated plans. Active enrollments to come with an added administrative burden and the risk that employees who forget to enroll in benefits may face gaps in coverage.

Passive Enrollment

Passive enrollments, on the other hand, automatically roll over an employee’s existing benefit elections unless specific changes are made. This strategy minimizes administrative effort and ensures continuous coverage. Passive enrollments are convenient and time saving, especially for those employees not looking to make any changes. However, a passive environment can also lead to employees that overlook new plan options, miss out on cost-saving opportunities, or remain in plans no longer suitable for their needs.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the choice between active and passive enrollment depends on your organization’s goals. Employers prioritizing engagement, education and the promotion of active healthcare consumerism may prefer active enrollment, while those focusing on efficiency might lean toward passive enrollment. In either case, effective communication is critical to ensure employees understand their benefits to help them make the most informed decisions when it comes to their healthcare journeys.

As you continue to prepare for 2026 open enrollment season, be sure to reach out to your AssuredPartners team for support to determine which enrollment strategy may be best for your organization.