WEX Health & Benefits Connect: Replacing fragmentation for a personalized open enrollment

Open Enrollment is here, and for too many, it brings stress, confusion, and delayed reimbursements. That’s because the benefits world is unnecessarily fragmented, forcing employees to navigate multiple platforms, confusing jargon, and slow claim processes. That’s why WEX recently hosted its Health & Benefits Connect event to introduce and unpack a powerful suite of innovations for benefits administrators in need. From AI-powered claims processing to a unified enrollment platform for employees, the inclusion of technology and automation in the Open Enrollment process is designed to replace complexity with an effortless, unified experience that gets employees the money and peace of mind they deserve.

The Need to Combat Benefits Confusion

The urgency for simplification has never been greater, as confusing plan options and convoluted benefit jargon continues to push employees away from engaging with their health care. A primary symptom of this is the Open Enrollment time crunch, with one-third of benefits enrollees spending less than 30 minutes deciding on their health plan. To combat this, employers must evolve their education strategy from generic, one-size-fits-all communications to reach employees where they’re at. New WEX and Visa research highlights messages emphasizing the functional and emotional benefits of HSAs – such as “peace of mind” and using it as a “weapon to combat inflation” – resonate far more than technical details. Breaking through the confusion requires employers to focus on:

• Segmentation & Personalization: Dividing audiences by life stage or health status to create customized contribution scenarios that empower employees to see how a benefit, like an HSA, applies directly to their situation.
• Multi-Generational Delivery: Tailoring content formats to cohort preferences, such as engaging Gen Z with short-form videos and FAQs on social media and reaching Gen X with tailored email notices.

Crucially, this level of communication should not stop at enrollment. By continuously analyzing usage and outcomes, the intelligent WEX platform can suggest optimizations, encouraging employees to engage with their benefits year-round and adjust them as their lives change.

Easier Connections for Employees 

The complexity of the ecosystem means employees are often struggling with stress and a deep disconnect with their benefits. To combat this and deliver the personalized benefits experience employees need, WEX unpacked a variety of solutions for benefits administrators, designed to simplify and enrich the process overall:

• AI-Powered Claims: This new solution tackles the friction of manual claims, achieving a 90% reduction in processing time and 97% accuracy in reimbursement determination. The result is profound: Employees feel cared for when money comes fast, freeing up HR teams from chasing errors.
• The Next Gen Consumer Experience: This unified platform combines enrollment, accounts, and claims into one intuitive interface across web and mobile for its users. This ensures information is entered once and includes smart nudges and personalization to guide participants seamlessly.
• HSA Brokerage Solution: Addressing the recurring problem that only about 9% of HSA holders invest their funds, this new solution simplifies long-term saving. It offers features like real-time trading for confident investors and intuitive defaults/smart nudges for new savers, helping turn the HSA into an accessible, powerful financial wellness tool.

Easier Workflows for Administrators

This critical focus on simplicity extends directly to the time-strapped HR and benefits teams – but this is where technology and automation can help to advance their workflows and productivity. WEX is focused on delivering the tools to streamline backend processes and reduce operational risk:

• WEX Developer Center: The high volume of system integrations that administrators manage creates constant upkeep and risk. The WEX Developer Center changes that by serving as a central front door for partners. With this new backend system in place, users will be able to register an app, obtain credentials, test with sample data, and go live in days instead of months – accelerating time-to-market and delivering value to employees more quickly than ever.
• COBRA – Streamlined Member Management: Common challenges in this entangled space include manual data entry, errors in eligibility transmission, slow member notification, and managing premium payments. This solution simplifies this essential compliance function with integrations that auto-update eligibility status with faster, more reliable file delivery to reduce mistakes, and improve compliance.

Open enrollment is all about being prepared. For employers, this means setting early planning efforts into full motion, landing clear communications, and providing tools and resources to help make the process simpler and more intuitive. By drawing on innovations that eliminate fragmentation, prioritizing AI-driven automation, and driving more personalized engagement through technology, industry leaders will be able to focus more on people, not paperwork. And in return, employees will receive the confidence they need to truly make the most of their benefits – creating a successful Open Enrollment experience for all involved. 

Ready to eliminate friction from the benefits administration process this Open Enrollment? Contact the WEX team today for a personalized demonstration of our AI-powered platform,” or “Download the New WEX and Visa research on benefits engagement.”

To learn more about these research findings and their impact on your benefits strategy, download our free white paper: “Maximizing HSA adoption and engagement – The power of segmentation to drive tailored messaging.”

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