Launch EDE Fast(er) with HealthSherpa

What does it take to be up and running on Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) with HealthSherpa? A lot less than you might think.

Launching a health insurance sales platform can take months or even years with the many vendors that have built their business around long engagements. With HealthSherpa, you get the same operational support and compliance reliability with a fraction of the effort—and with the leading technology in the business. 

EDE with HealthSherpa builds efficiencies into every step that will get you live fast and with a marketplace that’s as easy for consumers to use as it is secure and feature-rich for marketers, sales agents and administrators to be their best.

Five Steps to A Better Marketplace

EDE with HealthSherpa gives you all the tools you need to maximize your ACA individual market sales and brand identity. You get a user experience that averages a Net-Promoter Score above 70 and has a full suite of branding options to make it your own. Plus, you get administrator tools that will optimize and unify your marketing, sales and operations strategies into one easy-to-use platform.

And it can all be done in five steps that average just 9-12 weeks from start to finish—and less if you’re really motivated.

• Contracting
• Planning
• Build
• CMS Approval
• Launch

1. Contracting

One of the great benefits of EDE from the perspective of evaluation and contracting is that the requirements put forth by the CMS are thoroughly outlined and standardized. HealthSherpa was the first vendor approved to run EDE and remains the clear leader in total enrollment traffic. That means that evaluation, drafting, internal coordination, contract review and approval, and signing are largely based on your organization’s motivation to get to launch. We usually get things done in just a few weeks.

2. Planning

If you have coordinated your internal stakeholder during the contracting process, getting to planning can follow immediately and progress quickly. HealthSherpa’s implementation experts can help you gather the proper stakeholders and give them everything they need to draft and/or adjust their processes for your individual marketplace business. As we gather your requirements and bring your internal teams together to learn about the platform, we are also preparing for the build and approval steps, so that no time is wasted on getting you to launch.

3. Build

HealthSherpa has onboarded dozens of EDE marketplaces, and we have engineered our technology to make the build phase as streamlined as we can. Remember, we are integrated with the CMS API, which means that the plan loading steps that you might need for an FFM or other marketplace solution are not needed for EDE setup. That enables us and you to focus on the brand and voice. We also have options, if you want to take a bit more time, for special add-ons like embedding EDE with HealthSherpa into your own customer environment and URL. We can also integrate your users from an internal system or platform via single sign-on (SSO), so they can further integrate EDE into their existing tools and processes. These additional integrations take more time but, again, it’s adding weeks to the implementation, not months or years.

The build includes a testing environment for your internal teams to access to ensure that everything looks and works as it should.

4. CMS Approval

At the same time that we are working with you to build out your EDE marketplace, we’re also working with you and the CMS on your application to obtain EDE approval. This step requires the following information:

• EDE Entity Documentation Package
• Privacy Policy + Terms of Service
• Leadership Organizational Chart
• HUB Onboarding Document (HealthSherpa)
• Data Sharing Document (HealthSherpa)

This process can take anywhere from two weeks to two months depending on the completion status of your application (we’ve got you covered!) and the CMS’s backlog. So, the earlier in the year you can submit your application, the better.

5. Launch

Once the application is approved and testing is complete, we are ready to launch! The process itself takes a matter of minutes but don’t worry, we have a launch checklist to ensure all systems are go.

Once your EDE marketplace is live, you can start enrolling members immediately and know that whenever you make updates to your plans with the CMS—and whenever the CMS makes changes to subsidy calculations like those made with the recent COVID relief package passed by Congress—those changes will be automatically available through your marketplace. You just need to focus on selling. Nice, huh?

Ready to launch your own EDE with HealthSherpa? Contact us today and get started with contracting tomorrow!

To learn more about EDE, contact us at ede@healthsherpa.com.