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Vericred Powers One-Stop Shop for Employee Benefits Quoting with Expanded Group Rating API

Posted on by Ideon

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

Adding two new lines of coverage, Vericred offers the only API enabling group medical, vision, dental, life, and disability insurance quoting

November 9, 2021 – Vericred, the API platform powering digital quote-to-card experiences in health insurance and benefits, today announced it has added group life and disability insurance lines of coverage to its industry-leading, multi-carrier Group Rating API (application programming interface). Employee benefits quoting platforms now have one API from which to power a multi-line, data-driven quoting experience for brokers and employers. 

Guardian Life is among the first life and disability insurance carriers to partner with Vericred at launch of the expanded API. The Group Rating API enables carriers to augment the distribution of their products through more digital sales channels, including benefits-focused insurtechs.

Using the enhanced Group Rating API, Vericred’s quoting platform customers can now easily quote and compare all of the most commonly offered benefits without building and maintaining their own carrier connectivity and rating engines. More than 300 insurance carriers and 100 insurtech companies rely on Vericred for digital connectivity and seamless data exchange, including industry leaders Cigna, Guardian, Humana, Principal, Rippling, Gusto, and Ease.

“By adding the life and disability lines to our rating API, we are helping our quoting platform customers be more efficient, so they can spend more time serving their clients and less time on connectivity and data sourcing,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “Vericred is a one-stop shop for employee benefits connectivity, from quote to card, supporting insurtechs, carriers, and brokers in meeting the needs of the group market today.”

About Vericred
Vericred is the way health insurance carriers and employee benefits providers connect with new technology partners to deliver seamless quote-to-card consumer experiences. We are not the websites or apps you use to choose a plan or find a doctor. We are the infrastructure. We are the ‘pipes’ that simplify the complex exchange of quoting, enrollment and eligibility data between carriers and the technology partners responsible for delivering health and employee benefits to hundreds of millions of Americans everyday. Our APIs transmit billions of data points between InsurTech and insurance carriers, powering digital distribution across the insurance industry. Come join the community of insurance geeks creating a seamless digital quote-to-card experience. Visit www.vericred.com.

How third-party quoting platforms can drive better analytics and more sales for health insurance carriers

Posted on by Ideon
By Matt Leonard, Ideon’s Vice President of Carrier Relations

In recent years, brokers have flocked to third-party services to quote health insurance plans from multiple carriers. As a result, most carriers wanted to immediately tap into this new, growing distribution channel. They were quick to share rates and product information with external partners, making the downstream quoting process easy and accurate for brokers assembling employer proposals.

But not all carriers bought in. Holdouts chose to keep rates in-house, forcing brokers to obtain quotes directly from them. Their chief concern: a perceived black hole of visibility and analytics. Specifically, carriers worried they’d lose access to valuable information typically gleaned when brokers quoted plans via carrier websites and portals—e.g., which brokers sold what products (and where), what employer groups were shopping for new policies, etc.

Today, with a majority of health insurance carriers having made their plans and rates available to third-party quoting platforms, we can now see whether those early fears were justified.

Short answer: Carriers that embraced the “platform revolution” are being rewarded with a stream of high-quality data that can drive advanced analytics and turbocharge sales operations. In fact, their visibility into quoting activity on platforms is not all that different compared to if quotes are prepared on carrier websites. It’s truly a win-win—i.e., modern distribution combined with valuable insights.

Meanwhile, carriers that are not distributing their rates continue to miss out in two ways: limited distribution to digital sales channels and zero visibility into how—and if—their products are being quoted externally.

To understand why, let’s examine two scenarios.

  1. Carrier relies entirely on in-house website or portal for quoting

    In the past, brokers logged on to each carrier’s website to get the quotes they needed to assemble a client proposal. That’s a lot of busy work for the broker, but it gave the carrier critical information. Location data, insights on which brokers are quoting which plans, and information about group sizes and quote-to-close ratios are all part of the typical carrier analytics package. And when they see quotes generated for potentially lucrative accounts, the carriers can assign sales representatives to help brokers to win the business.

    This may seem like an appealing option to carriers that want full control over where their products are quoted. And, understandably, they crave these in-depth analytics. But this mindset—control over distribution—is built upon a false premise. Third-party quoting platforms still add the plan and rate information of non-participating carriers, mainly by tracking down public filings and other sources.

    The difference? The data could well be incomplete or out-of-date, risking the possibility of inaccurate quotes appearing on client proposals. And carriers receive no information at all about how well their products are doing on downstream platforms and no leads on deals in progress.

  2. Carrier engages with today’s platform ecosystem

    Today, nearly all brokers use quoting platforms to save time compiling rates from multiple carriers and building proposals. Most carriers understand this reality and have reacted accordingly. These carriers distribute their product information to quoting platforms to ensure rates and plans are represented accurately.

    At the same time, the participating carriers have access to a precise record of every quote issued, often specifying the individual broker, the employer group, and more.

    Carriers can use this data to build sophisticated analytics that can help optimize the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and commission programs. For example, they can calculate the quote-to-close ratio across different brokers, client types, geographic areas, and commission rates. Carriers are also feeding the data they get from quoting platforms directly into their CRM systems. That way their sales team can monitor how well they are being represented by each broker in the market and react quickly to opportunities.

 

Today, most carriers clearly see the two main advantages in working with platforms: distribution and visibility. The good news for those only now seeing the light is that they can catch up quickly, i.e., they need not build relationships with platforms from scratch. Middleware vendors, like Ideon, act as one-to-many distribution partners for carriers, accepting their plan data in any format and sharing it throughout today’s modern quoting ecosystem. And because a middleware partner pulls in quote activity and analytics from many downstream platforms, carriers get all the visibility they need to make informed decisions.

What are the opportunities that non-participating carriers are missing? Consider the recent experience of one new Ideon customer, a major health plan in the South, that recently started using our solutions to publish their plan information to quoting platforms. Until then, this carrier had assumed that most brokers were looking up their rates on their website. They were shocked when they looked at the analytics we delivered to find that brokers, using third-party platforms, were quoting their plans 600+ times per month. Before Ideon, the carrier had zero insight into these potential new business opportunities.

Now that’s a black hole to be concerned about. Contact us to learn more!

Ahead of Open Enrollment, Decisely Selects Vericred to Power Fast, Scalable Digital Enrollment and Member Management

Posted on by Ideon

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

A long-time Vericred customer, Decisely completes integration with Vericred’s enrollment and member management API; gains critical connections to health insurance and employee benefits carriers for faster group activation

NEW YORK—November 02, 2021—Vericred, the API platform powering digital quote-to-card experiences in health insurance and benefits, today announced that HR and employee benefits platform Decisely has selected Vericred’s enrollment and member management API for a better, faster and more accurate digital enrollment experience. Decisely made the selection ahead of the busy 2021 fall open enrollment season to help it manage a dramatically increased volume of customer transactions in a short timeframe.

Decisely offers a suite of services for small and medium-sized businesses to manage critical HR functions, including employee benefits administration. By integrating Vericred’s API into its platform, Decisely gains instant connections to Vericred’s network of health insurance and employee benefits carriers for easy data exchange. This enables Decisely to quickly add new employer groups to its platform and complete the necessary transactions, from plan quoting to card delivery, in a matter of weeks. As a result, employers can provide a faster and more seamless benefits enrollment experience to their employees.

“Decisely has been a Vericred group rating API user for the past five years. Vericred has demonstrated the ability to manage large data sets consistently and reliably over time. This track record gives us confidence in their ability to manage enrollment transactions via their API as well,” said Richard Mann, COO of Decisely. “Decisely has experienced high double-digit growth for the past two years. Vericred will allow us to continue to scale and keep costs down.”

Reliable, two-way data exchange with multiple carriers is a technical necessity for HR and benefits platforms. However, building individual point-to-point integrations with a multitude of insurers is resource-intensive and cost-prohibitive. HR and benefits platforms like Decisely that integrate with Vericred’s APIs gain one-to-many carrier connectivity, making it faster to activate benefits for new employer groups than if they had forged individual connections with in-house resources.

“We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with Decisely, and play a key role in their business as they grow and scale,” said Michael W. Levin, CEO and co-founder of Vericred. “By leveraging Vericred’s APIs, Decisely is making it easier and more cost effective to deliver the best possible experience to their own customers during open enrollment and throughout the year.”

About Vericred

Vericred is the way health insurance carriers and employee benefits providers connect with new technology partners to deliver seamless quote-to-card consumer experiences. We are not the websites or apps you use to choose a plan or find a doctor. We are the infrastructure. We are the ‘pipes’ that simplify the complex exchange of quoting, enrollment, and eligibility data between carriers and the technology partners responsible for delivering health and employee benefits to hundreds of millions of Americans everyday. Our APIs transmit billions of data points between InsurTech and insurance carriers, powering digital distribution across the insurance industry. Come join the community of insurance geeks creating a seamless digital quote-to-card experience. Visit www.vericred.com.

About Decisely

Decisely is an integrated technology solution to manage all your HR needs from recruitment to retirement, and everything in between. With over 150 years of combined experience, the leadership team has grown Decisely from a simple brokerage firm to a diverse team of licensed industry experts and technical support. The Decisely family is focused on providing the best benefits, HR, and compliance management service on the market. Learn more at www.decisely.com.

Employee Spotlight: Tom Aguilar

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… our long-time software engineer, Tom Aguilar.

 

Name: Tom Aguilar

Department: Engineering

Title: Software Engineer

Location: New York

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

Five and a half years. I was one of the earlier employees, No. 14 to be exact!

So you’ve had a front-row seat to Ideon’s transition from a small startup to the well-funded, nearly 100-person company it is today. What’s that experience been like for you?

It’s been a great learning experience over the years. When I started, everyone wore many hats, as is common early on. We were discovering what worked and didn’t. We’ve learned quite a bit from those early days, and we now have a more established process and team structures to fully support our mission.

You started your Ideon career on the data operations team. How was the transition to the engineering team?

When I first joined, I was part of the data operations team, figuring out how our health insurance benefit and rate data should be standardized and sourced into our system. At some point, it became clear that what we were doing was closely tied to our engineering team’s effort to build out our APIs and expose the data to customers. With support from the engineering team, I transitioned from a more data-science role to software engineering, which was a fun and engaging way to learn. And I have a unique perspective that I get to share. I can help new Ideon engineers get up to speed and more deeply understand how the rest of the company functions.

What attracted you to Ideon’s mission?

I went to a public health school so I was drawn to the mission of improving access and efficiency in the healthcare system. I enjoy getting the opportunity to work for a company looking to make the system work better for everybody. 

What do you enjoy about Ideon’s company culture?

We have a really strong and diverse team that I get to work with every day. I enjoy the good balance of independent work and collaboration on the engineering side. 

What do you like most about your job and working at Ideon?

I love that I get to take a deep dive into the insurance industry’s challenges, as my workday is full of solving technical problems that impact how millions of Americans access and enroll in benefits.

Tell us about your day-to-day as a member of the engineering team?

My day starts at “stand-up”—our daily morning meeting—going through the tasks I’m currently working on and any blockers that I have run into. Then from there, I’m focused on getting features out to our customers or on improving the internal tooling for our operations team.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working?

Drinking natural wines and playing records.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Japan.

 

Interested in joining our team? Check out Ideon’s careers page.

Vericred Announces Expanded Omaha Operations Following $23 Million Series B Funding

Posted on by Ideon

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

OMAHA, Neb., July 7, 2021 – New York City-based Vericred, a data platform powering digital experiences in health insurance and employee benefits, today announced plans to expand operations in Omaha.

The InsurTech platform, which recently completed $23 million in Series B funding, said the Omaha location will support the doubling of Vericred’s workforce, by adding an expected 30-40 highly skilled positions in the Metro. Vericred has hired a husband and wife—Matthew Leonard and Val Leonard, both formerly of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska—to lead its carrier and Omaha-based enrollment teams, respectively.

“As a technology, insurance and financial services hub, Omaha is a natural fit to support Vericred’s growth,” said Michael W. Levin, CEO and co-founder of Vericred. “We considered locations throughout the U.S. for our enrollments operations, and landed on Omaha, because of its insurance-industry talent, its emerging startup scene and its reputation as an incubator of innovation.”

Vericred’s entry into the Omaha market was facilitated by a public-private collaborative of stakeholders, including the Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership, a seven-county collective representing 44 percent of Nebraska’s population, and more than 60 percent of the state’s GDP.

“We are pleased to welcome Vericred to Omaha and are roundly impressed with the remarkable progress they’ve made during a pandemic economy,” said David G. Brown, president and CEO, Greater Omaha Chamber. “Vericred scouted office locations, signed a lease and hired Omaha leadership, all remotely.”

Omaha, ranked the best city in Nebraska to get a job in 2021, according to Zippia, has outpaced the nation in finance-and-insurance-industry growth for the past six years, increasing at a rate of 26.2 percent compared to national average of 7.1 percent.

“We’re happy to be in Omaha, and ready to hire across our enrollment operations, engineering, sales, and carrier relations teams,” Levin said.

About Vericred

Vericred is the way health insurance carriers and employee benefits providers connect with new technology partners to deliver seamless quote-to-card consumer experiences. We are not the websites or apps you use to choose a plan or find a doctor. We are the infrastructure. We are the ‘pipes’ that simplify the complex exchange of quoting, enrollment and eligibility data between carriers and the technology partners responsible for delivering health and employee benefits to hundreds of millions of Americans everyday. Our APIs transmit billions of data points between InsurTech and insurance carriers, powering digital distribution across the insurance industry. Come join the community of insurance geeks creating a seamless digital quote-to-card experience.

About the Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership

The Greater Omaha Chamber Economic Development Partnership (https://www.omahachamber.org/economic-development/) represents a seven-county area from two states (Nebraska and Iowa) that includes Cass, Dodge, Douglas, Otoe, Pottawattamie, Sarpy and Washington Counties.

About Greater Omaha

Greater Omaha is a No. 1 ranked up-and-coming-tech hotspot, a “top 10 best place to live on a $60,000 salary” and was named America’s No. 2 Best Small City by Resonance Consultancy. The region is a top-five “most remarkable waterfronts in the U.S.” and is home to more than 30 communities and nearly 1 million people.

About the Greater Omaha Chamber

The mission of the Greater Omaha Chamber is to champion a thriving business community and a prosperous region through visionary leadership and collaboration.

Opportunity Awaits BenAdmins that support ICHRAs

Posted on by Ideon

By now, Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs) are no secret. Emerging only two years ago as an obscure addition to federal health insurance regulation, ICHRAs are now among the hottest topics in employer-sponsored benefits. But any significant employer shift to ICHRAs will require answer to a pair of important questions:

  • Is there an ICHRA role for benefits administration (BenAdmin) platforms?
  • If so, what exactly is it?

We can begin to answer both by examining the motivation for companies large and small  to migrate to ICHRAs. For small companies, ICHRAs are often a way to do something as an alternative to not offering employer sponsored health insurance. In fact, 70% of the small employers (<50 employees) offering an ICHRA today are contributing to their employees’ health insurance for the first time, according to Take Command Health. ICHRAs also allow small employers to get out of the often-burdensome benefits administration business. So, at the end of the day, there may be very little opportunity for BenAdmins in ICHRA-based small employers. 

Large employers, however, are another thing.

There are several reasons why large employers might adopt ICHRAs—but getting out of the benefits administration business is not one of them. First, a feature of ICHRAs is that they allow employers to move classes of employees to ICHRAs while keeping others on their existing group health plans. This provides more choice—and therefore a better benefit experience—to certain classes of employees. The last thing such employers want is to undermine a better insurance experience with a lesser benefits administration experience. These employers will very much want their BenAdmins to support individual and group products.

A second reason large employers that adopt ICHRAs will not move away from BenAdmins is that they want to keep certain products (e.g., group life and disability) on the group “chassis.” This, too, requires BenAdmins to support both individual and group products.

All of which suggests a three-point game plan for BenAdmins to remain competitive in an ICHRA world:

  1. Support both individual- and group-plan comparison. BenAdmins must be able to support a hybrid individual and group plan comparison experience. For instance: group health and ancillary for some employees but individual health and group ancillary for other employees. And unlike the group market, where a typical employee may choose from a handful of medical plans that are fairly easily configurable, tens (if not hundreds) of plans may be available and will therefore need to be configured.  
  2. Support both individual- and group-plan decision support. Accounting for tens (or hundreds) of medical plans exacerbates the complexity of plan choice by each employee. So BenAdmins must shepherd employees through the decision process with the appropriate tools and features. What was once optional (shop-by-doc, shop-by-drug) is now table stakes. 
  3. Support both individual- and group-enrollment and eligibility changes. Only offering plan selection during open-enrollment period (OEP) is not enough. BenAdmins will need to support individual enrollment, demographic changes, QLEs, etc. for individual products. This represents a whole new integration challenge for BenAdmins.

Bottom line: ICHRAs are an opportunity

ICHRAs do not spell the end of benefit administration— at least not with larger employers. But BenAdmins will need to enhance their platforms to support this new and important coverage option. And in doing so, they will set themselves apart from competitors who disregard a coverage option that could become as ubiquitous as 401(k)s.

If you’re interested in reading more of Ideon’s 2021 ICHRA research and learning how APIs can streamline the development of ICHRA solutions, download our full-length ICHRA toolkit.