Direct Enrollment & the Federally-Facilitated Exchange: Marketing Strategy Questions

We looked at the options facing payers when it comes to Direct Enrollment with the FFM in a previous post as well as the risks involved in the most technically complex of the options, the Fully-Integrated Model. Is that full model worth the risk for your organization?

On the one hand, there is a lot of technical heavy lifting and a lot of risks inherent in the direct enrollment implementation. What is gained from that work is your ability to control the shopping experience and guarantee that your potential customers won't be tempted into selecting a plan from another issuer. 

To determine whether it is worth the cost, effort, and risk depends very much upon your go-to market strategy and anticipated sales volumes. Here are a few questions that can help determine the answer:

1. On-Exchange vs. Off-Exchange Volumes: How many new customers do you forecast will purchase your plans through the FFM's site and how many will come directly to your site to shop

2. Subsidy Volume: How many customers do you anticipate will qualify for APTCs/CSRs, and how do you think they will find out their eligibility? It would be some very expensive development if only a few dozen customers who start at your site qualify for a subsidy but a different picture if thousands of customers do. 

3. Lead Generation Strategy: What is the marketing strategy for driving potential customers to the your website, such as traditional media advertising, online advertising, email leads, broker referrals, referrals from other organizations and associations?

4. Brand Affinity: Is it reasonable to assume that shoppers who begin on your website rather than the FFM's will already have an affinity for your brand and therefore be unlikely to choose another issuer's plan if offered them side by side

5. Competitive Differentiators: How do you plan to compete against the other issuers in the market? Are you targeting cost-conscious consumers likely to select whatever plan is lowest in price, or are you competing on other factors like brand, service, and benefits'

6. Broker Channel Strategy: How important are brokers in your go-to-market strategy: do you anticipate they will be guiding consumers as they purchase (and therefore may help guide consumers away from your competitors' products) or will consumers be shopping on their own?

These are just a few factors to take into consideration when deciding how best to interact with the FFM in your markets.