The Top 3 Things New Brokers Should Know About Open Enrollment
August 28, 2020

Health insurance brokers succeed or fail based on their grasp of open enrollment. To the extent they understand how open enrollment works and are able to prepare for it, a broker's business will be defined. Those who get it tend to book more business than those who do not.
As a new broker, open enrollment may be completely foreign to you. It is time to change that. There are three key things you need to know about it that will get you off on the right foot. These are:
Keep reading to learn more about these topics. Again, the success of your business depends on how well you understand and prepare for open enrollment.
Due to the nature of our private healthcare system, health insurance policies are generally offered on a 12-month basis. Companies have the opportunity to make changes to their benefits packages for the coming year in the weeks prior to their renewal dates. Likewise, employees have the opportunity to modify their benefits during the same period. This period is known as open enrollment.
Open enrollment serves the purpose of giving health insurance brokers, employers, and employees enough time to anticipate changes to benefits packages and, where necessary, modify said benefits accordingly. It is only during open enrollment that modifications can be made.
There is no set time or date for the start or end of open enrolment. Companies and their health insurance providers have the freedom to set dates as they see fit. As a general rule however, health insurance companies do their best to give employers and employees 2 to 4 weeks to modify benefits.
If a company's policy follows the calendar year, meaning a start date of January 1 and an end date of December 31, it is typical for open enrollment to begin sometime in mid-to-late November. Under such a scenario, open enrollment could end anywhere between mid-December and the end of the year.
As a new broker, you may be tempted to use the first and second quarters of the year to relax and catch your breath after having worked extremely hard during the third and fourth quarters of the previous year. However, you are better off using the entire year to prepare for the next open enrollment.
In a nutshell, here is what you can do in each quarter: