While many advisers rushed to get trained on the public health insurance exchanges in order to stay informed on these marketplaces, plenty of them do not plan on actually enrolling individuals on the exchanges.
In many states, such as New York and Washington, people looking for coverage on the state exchange websites have the option of selecting a certified broker from a drop-down menu or searching a comprehensive list of brokers if theyd like this form of assistance. But, because these tools include all brokers who have gone through training, this could lead to an influx of calls to brokerages nationwide that are listed on government websites, yet have little business interest in the exchanges.
Frenkel Benefits, LLC in New York City is one such example. Were listed as an authorized agency on the exchange and have gotten dozens of people who are looking for help, says Craig Hasday, chief operating officer. As a group benefits professional, he says he got licensed in New York and is close to finalizing licensing in Connecticut to be in the position to understand it, but explains that, in practice, he doesnt plan to take on many small business or individual clients.
Instead, he tells consumers who call that this was all very new and that I didnt think I was the right person to give them advice, and then works to set them up with peers who are handling individual exchange enrollments.
Assisted by a broker
Taking another approach, Quincy Branch, president and CEO of Branch Benefits Consultants, chose to set up a new exchange-focused team at his company to handle education and enrollment for local people, families and small businesses. Its not that its bad or its good, its just a business decision, says the Las Vegas-based broker, whose business up until this summer was predominantly group benefits. He knows many brokers who went through exchange training but are making a different business decision than him to not actively enroll consumers but he doesnt see that as a problem. I dont think them getting the training is doing anyone a disservice, he says. Hopefully, the brokers [who get calls] will have good friends or colleagues who can get the person serviced. He adds: The fact that theyre getting referred to a local broker is the best part, at least theyre getting helped and assisted by a broker.
Neither Hasday nor Branch say they think the federal or state government agencies will have a more detailed search functionality in the near future that would weed out brokers not interested in solicitations. But, state exchange directors are starting to notice that not all brokers are participating. Earlier this week,
Weeding brokers out
In the beginning, we didnt know who would rise to the top so we had to start with everybody and that has kind of happened, where some brokers have told us that theyre not going to participate a lot and others have said they are, Boyle says. Id expect that the group benefits guys will just fall off and will refer individuals to producers in their own business or refer them out to somebody else. He says hes had several brokers request that their names be removed from the Connecticut exchanges broker search function, which allows consumers to sort by zip code or name, because they didnt want to receive inquiries. He says at this point, he doesnt foresee his exchange making any modifications to their website search to accommodate more detail about brokers interests. Instead, he thinks these brokers will continue to ask remove themselves. Its not clear if brokers can be removed on other state exchange websites in the way Connecticut can.
Lucky coincidence
But the issue of stray consumer calls to brokers isnt solely a byproduct of an unsophisticated Healthcare.gov website search.
