Alegeus Reveals That Consumers Want More From Open Enrollment Experiences, Still Struggle to Understand Healthcare Costs

Waltham, Mass. – Alegeus, the market-leader in consumer directed health care (CDH) solutions, today released the results of its 2021 Post-Open Enrollment Survey. The survey, which was designed to capture consumer sentiment coming out of the open enrollment period, revealed that consumers are still struggling to make benefit enrollment decisions. Survey questions covered many topics such as the impact of COVID-19 on needs and preferences, employer support for enrollment decision-making, consumer decision criteria and confidence, barriers and opportunities – as well as specific viewpoints on consumer directed accounts.

Consumer health and financial fluency challenges are well documented, and we know that consumers often feel ill-prepared to navigate open enrollment decisions,” said Alegeus CEO Leif O’Leary. “Consumers often lack the knowledge and confidence to make savvy decisions that will deliver the best value for their family’s unique situation. These insights confirm that, as an industry, we still have work to do to help consumers feel confident and make savvier enrollment decisions.

In an unprecedented year shaped by a global pandemic, 36% of participants said COVID-19 caused them to look more closely at their health plans options for the coming year. However, despite this proactivity, 63% of those consumers still enrolled in the same plan as the year prior. Familiarity with the plan and coverage were cited as primary reasons for sticking with current plans. Cost and value were cited as top decision criteria for 45% of consumers.

Only 43% of consumers rated their open enrollment experience as “positive”. Many pointed to limited support from employers in helping them navigate these decisions:

• 48% of consumers said that their employer did not provide enough educational resources such as videos, flyers, and decision support tools, to prepare them for enrollment decisions.
• Only 40% of consumers felt prepared to make decisions regarding their health care plan.

Consumers continue to grapple with understanding and predicting healthcare costs. 21% struggled most with forecasting out of pocket costs or determining optimal contribution amounts, while 20% felt that they simply could not discern which option would provide the best for them and their family. Another 10% of survey responders acknowledged that they fundamentally didn’t understand the options that were available.

Consumer directed healthcare accounts continued to feature prominently among enrolled benefits – offering strong value to help consumers save on out-of-pocket health care expenses:

• 43% of consumers surveyed decided to enroll in an account such as Flexible Saving Account (FSA), Health Saving Account (HSA), and Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA).
• 13% of the consumers opted into a new or different type of account for the first time.

Despite their struggles, 76% of consumers ultimately said that they feel at least somewhat confident that they had chosen the right health plan for them.

At Alegeus, we are laser-focused on helping consumers get the best value for their healthcare dollars – taking the guesswork out of spending and saving decisions, and helping them navigate healthcare decision-making with confidence,” said O’Leary. “We conduct surveys like this to better understand where consumers are struggling across the industry. With these insights, we will continue to innovate and improve our market-leading consumer funding platform – so that we can continue to expand our reach and impact on the 30+ million consumers that we support.

About Alegeus

With more than 25 years of growth and innovation, Alegeus is the market leader in SaaS-based healthcare payment solutions. Our highly flexible, white-label platform powers account-based benefit programs such as HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, COBRA, wellness incentives, lifestyle benefits and beyond. We deliver exceptional user experiences and differentiated capabilities that help our partners strengthen their product offerings, operate more efficiently, and unlock their full growth potential. Our partnerships with the industry’s leading health plans, third-party administrators, financial services and benefit solution providers give Alegeus unparalleled reach in the market. And our unique partnership model empowers our clients to achieve outsized results – growing their programs at a rate that is 2-3X the market, and with the highest net promoter scores (NPS) in the industry. We never compete with our clients – we win when they win. Alegeus is headquartered in Waltham, Mass., with operations centers in Orlando and Bangalore, and a large remote workforce.