Towers Watson tries to smooth exchange enrollment

The HHS officials in charge of running the PPACA public exchanges have tried to reduce antiselection risk in the public exchange individual “qualified health plan” (QHP) market by offer access to individual QHP coverage on a true guaranteed-issue basis only during a limited “open enrollment period.” 

John Haley, the company’s president, said during the analyst call that, at the Towers Watson exchanges, exchange managers have been focusing on trying to smooth out the seasonality in the retiree health exchange enrollment process, rather encouraging retirees to enroll in November and December.

“This would help us to keep our top-performing agents throughout the year,” Haley said. “That will reduce our overall cost by helping us keep a more stable workforce.”

This year, Haley said, the retiree health exchange program completed 50,000 in off-cycle enrollments in the first quarter.

“This is almost three times the off-cycle enrollment we reported last year,” Haley said.

Company executives noted that seasonality can cause exchange cash management headaches.

If an exchange brings in most enrollments during one part of the year, then collects commissions or fees throughout the year, the exchange may have to recognize most of its enrollment expenses during or shortly after the enrollment period and have to wait until later in the year to recognize much of its revenue, executives said.

See also:

• Towers Watson to pay $215M for exchange builder
• Towers Watson to acquire DaVinci Consulting
• Towers Watson to Acquire Retiree Health Exit Capabilities