Tech Bits: Benefitfocus, Transamerica, Guardian, Sircon

By Staff Writer

April 27, 2010 at 08:00 PM

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The Maryland Health Care Commission has picked Benefitfocus.com Inc. to set up a health plan shopping site aimed at Maryland employers with 2 to 50 employees.

Employers will be able to use the Virtual Compare site to compare plan features and costs, contact carriers directly, and search for insurance agents and brokers who have registered to participate in a site directory program, according to Benefitfocus, Charleston, S.C.

In other insurance technology news:

- Transamerica Retirement Services, Los Angeles, a unit of AEGON N.V., The Hague, Netherlands, will be formatting part of its site to help retirement plan participants get account information through Apple iPhone telephones and other Apple devices.

Plan participants can get read-only iPhone access without downloading a special app, Transamerica says.

- Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, has made its DI@Work online disability insurance enrollment system more flexible.

Employers have more choices about how information can be displayed; display format options; tailoring displays to fit the needs of specific employee groups; and the menu of coverage choices to be displayed.

Employers now can have the system show a "best-fit" coverage option based on 3 different factors, including the maximum benefit amount available and variables such as the desired benefit period and the desired riders.

Before, the nature of the best-fit option offered depended solely on the benefit amount available, Guardian says.

- Sircon, Okemos, Mich., a unit of Vertafore Inc., Bothell, Wash., says Bankers Fidelity Life Insurance Company, Atlanta, is using the Sircon for Carriers system to help get new agencies and producers on board.

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