Behind the Benefits Curtain: It’s Just Tina and a Fax Machine

Wanna know a secret about your benefits "integration?" On the back end it's still just a PDF + Outlook. And your SSN is on the form.

That’s not a metaphor. It still works this way.

Brokers, chime in if you've actually seen a health insurance company with an enrollment API. I haven't. 

I've heard they exist, but have yet to spot one in the wild.

Even the fancy ben admin tools. Somewhere behind the curtain, someone is downloading a form and forwarding it to a carrier. Often using unsecured email.

I couldn't believe it either.

The first time I set up a ben admin feature, I thought there was a direct feed to the insurance company. Nope.

It spit out a PDF and emailed me that it was ready.

This was one of the big payroll platforms that markets itself on making benefits easy. 

"How do I know when the insurance company has processed it?" I asked the implementation specialist. 

"Oh, no. YOU send it to the insurance company," she said. 

She missed my spit take.

"Hover over it. See the download button?"

I downloaded it and sent it to the insurance company using my encrypted email system. 

A few days later, the insurance company replied, "We can't open password-protected emails. Can you please send it directly?" 

Not a canned email. Typed by a person. Named Tina.

I called the broker line. "I can't send SSNs over unsecured email. What's the secure process?" 

"Oh. You can email it to us directly. We're very careful with your data,” she said reassuringly.

I wasn’t reassured.

"Making me send a form with someone's SSN over unencrypted email isn't 'secure,'" I said. "How do other people handle it?" 

"You can fax it."

Fax. This is the system.

You may be thinking: "Not us. We have an EDF."

What do you think an electronic data feed is? It just takes the data from your HRIS and translates it into the format that the insurance company can read.

In a shocking number of cases, that format is still a PDF. 

Read by human eyeballs. 

From an inbox.

Insurance and HRIS insiders: back me up here. How common is this?

Weird insurance issues messing with your day? We should talk.

Get me out of the stone age