Leveraging Data Analytics During Open Enrollment To Improve Employee Health & Lower Costs

October 15, 2024

Enhancing health outcomes, boosting employee compliance, and reducing healthcare costs

By Joe DiBella
As published on HR.com

Open enrollment offers human resources (HR) departments a critical opportunity. It’s one of the few times of the year they have their employees’ full attention to educate them on health plan information and guide them to make better choices.

Now more than ever, data analytics has a critical role to play for HR departments seeking to maximize the effectiveness of their open enrollment periods. The volume of data available to HR professionals has exploded, and powerful analytics tools have made extracting actionable insights faster and more efficient.

Typically, this data is used during open enrollment to help employees select the right plan. But there’s another way to use data analytics that’s gaining popularity. Innovative HR departments today are analyzing data around health plan utilization, identifying unused resources, and educating their employees during the open enrollment period in ways that save lives and significantly lower costs.

Data Analytics in Action

Not long ago, we worked with a large plan sponsor that was experiencing elevated rates of breast cancer in their employee population. This group turned to their benefits data for a solution. After reviewing the data, they found that only 50 percent of recommended employees were receiving their annual mammograms. While preventive mammograms are paid in full under the Affordable Care Act, only half of those recommended were receiving this life-saving screening. So, rather than just focusing on enrollment options, this group used open enrollment to launch a full-blown communications campaign to raise awareness about breast cancer and the organization’s low adherence rate for preventive mammograms.

Understanding that early detection is critical in treating this disease, the employer took this awareness campaign a step further. They set up a service that made it incredibly easy for employees to schedule mammograms and follow up with those overdue for the screening. In the end, this open enrollment campaign produced extraordinary results, elevating compliance with recommended screenings to 80 percent. Improving the population’s compliance with breast cancer screenings undoubtedly saved lives. It also saved the employer thousands of dollars in lengthy and costly cancer treatments over many years. None of this would have been possible had the employer not analyzed and acted on the insights gleaned from the collection of its employee data. And, importantly, using the attention open enrollment draws to get employees focused on this important issue.

How to Take Advantage

Leveraging data analytics to enhance open enrollment is accomplishable for employers of all sizes. Doing so requires some planning ahead. Here are four steps HR departments can take to set themselves up for success.

1. Get Access to Your Data: Most midsized and large employers should have access to their health plan and employee engagement data. But no matter what the size of the business, HR departments are entitled to this information. To get started, HR professionals can ask their health plan and insurance brokers for access to their employee data.

2. Utilize Powerful Analytics Technology: Without the right tools, sifting through high volumes of data can be a challenge for HR departments. Thankfully, there’s a powerful technology that adds speed and efficiency to this process. For example, data warehouse tools can capture a group’s claims and utilization experience and analyze drivers of cost and gaps in care so that specific actions can be taken to address cost and quality proactively. It was a data warehouse tool that allowed us to help the plan sponsor that focused on cancer screenings identify their low mammogram rate.

3. Look for Actionable Advice: Countless actionable insights are waiting to be uncovered in every employer’s healthcare data. It’s important to look at employee claims data to see what behaviors or claims are driving costs, what top conditions are leading to higher claims, and what gaps in care may exist that can lead to greater disease prevention or early detection. For example, are employees using a high-cost drug when a comparable generic alternative is available? Or are low-risk employees selecting high-cost plans when a different option is more suitable for them? Employers should also cross-reference these insights with the demographics of their employee population to get a better understanding of every opportunity to improve plan utilization. Armed with this data, employers are advised to leverage open enrollment time when employees are paying attention to build an action case.

4. Leverage Insights During Open Enrollment: Open enrollment is one of the few times when most employees are focused on benefits and healthcare, making it the perfect time to leverage these insights to influence employee behavior. Employers can create materials that educate employees on the services available to them and how to take advantage. These campaigns can include emails, videos, text messages, presentations, or any touch point that makes the most sense for the employee population. By educating employees at a time when they’re already thinking about health benefits, they will be much more likely to utilize the services available to them that can improve their health, increase early detection of serious illnesses, and ultimately save the organization money in future healthcare costs.

Partner with Experts to Maximize Success

For any employer or plan sponsor seeking to leverage data-driven insights during their next open enrollment period, it is important to partner with insurance brokers or consultants who have deep experience in both employee benefits and data analytics. These firms can help employers access, organize, and analyze their data in ways that produce quality, actionable insights. They can also bring powerful technologies to the table that can lead to the fast discovery of value-adding information. These experts can counsel organizations on how to best put these insights into action during open enrollment to ultimately improve employee health and lower overall healthcare costs.

FILED UNDER:

Benefits Automation, Data Analytics, Employee Benefits

Joe DiBella
Executive Partner, National Employee Benefits Practice Leader