During the Open Enrollment Period (OEP) 2025, renewing health policies, whether for Obamacare or Medicare, is a crucial process to ensure the continuity of your clients' coverage. This guide provides best practices and a step-by-step approach to efficiently use Apizeal's tools to manage and renew policies.
1. How to Find Policies Pending Renewal
Filters for "OEP 2025 ACA/Obamacare" and "OEP 2025 Medicare"
The first step to renewing policies is identifying which are pending renewal. Follow these steps:
1. Access the "POLICIES" option from the main menu on the left side.
2. Use the filters available in the left side sub-menu to segment policies by type of coverage:
ACA/Obamacare: Select the "OEP 2025 ACA/Obamacare" filter to see pending policies related to this program.
Medicare: Use the "OEP 2025 Medicare" filter to list only the pending policies for Medicare.
This filtering will provide a clear overview of the policies that require attention based on coverage type, helping you prioritize renewals effectively.
2. How to Filter Policies for Renewal by Priority
To optimize your time and ensure that you renew the most critical policies first, you can prioritize using the following criteria:
1. Within the "POLICIES" option, locate the blue "FILTERS" button on the right side of the search bar. This will open the available filter console.
2. Filter the policies according to their priority using criteria such as:
Number of Applicants: If you want to prioritize policies with more members, select the "QUANTITY OF APPLICANTS" criterion.
State: You can filter policies by U.S. states that need more attention by selecting the "STATE" criterion.
Insurance Carrier: Sort policies by insurance company by selecting the "CARRIER" criterion.
This strategy will help you manage your time better and ensure that high-priority policies are processed quickly.
3. How to Renew a Policy: Update Life Changes
Duplicate Function
Before starting the renewal process for a policy in Apizeal, the first crucial step is to duplicate the existing policy to create a copy for the year 2025.
This copy will initially be treated as a "QUOTE", allowing you to update any life changes without affecting the original policy, thus preserving the client's history year after year.
Follow these steps:
1. Duplicate the Policy:
Locate the policy you want to renew and go to the far right of the screen to click the blue button that displays a list of options.
Then click on the "DUPLICATE/RENEW" option. This will generate a new copy of the policy with all the client's information for 2025. This copy will be labeled as a "quote," meaning it is still a draft and not a finalized policy.
The "DUPLICATE" action is essential to preserve the original record and work with a new version for 2025.
Next, a prompt will appear asking, "DO YOU WANT TO DUPLICATE THIS POLICY?" Select the second option, "YES, MARK THIS POLICY AS RENEWED", and confirm by clicking the blue "YES, DUPLICATE IT" button.
2. Update Life Changes in the New Copy (if applicable):
Once the policy is duplicated, the system will automatically take you to the new version in "QUOTE" status, where you can update the information if needed.
Verify with the client if there have been any changes that could impact their coverage, such as:
Income: Any changes in household income.
Dependents: Adding or removing dependents.
Change of Address: If the client has moved, which could affect the provider network and available plans.
This duplication and update process ensures that you can make all necessary modifications for policy renewal without altering the original client record. Additionally, working on the "quote" ensures that any quote is based on the most recent client information.
Once all changes are made, you can proceed with the quoting process and plan selection in the next step.
4. Quoting and Plan Selection
After duplicating the policy and updating any life changes for 2025, it's time to select the most suitable plan for the client:
Within the client's information form, locate the blue "SEARCH PLANS" button in the upper-right corner of the screen to access the Health Insurance Marketplace (Healthcare.gov) quote tool integrated into your Apizeal account.
The platform will display a list of available plans based on the updated client and family information.
Filter the plans by considering factors such as:
Monthly premium.
Coverage of medical services.
Provider networks.
Click the "SELECT PLAN" button to proceed. The system will display a prompt to confirm the selection and inform you of the fields that will be automatically updated in the quote, specifically in tab #3 "Insurance and Payment" of the form.
5. Submit Policy: From Quote to Policy
Once you have selected the plan, the next step is to formalize the renewal of the policy in Apizeal. This process converts the "quote" into a policy for 2025.
Step-by-Step:
Verification of Details: Before proceeding, make sure all policy details, including life changes and plan selection, are correct.
Go to tab #4 "Extras" in the policy form. In the bottom right of the screen, you'll find the blue "SUBMIT" button. Click this button to formalize and save the policy in the system.
After clicking "SUBMIT", the policy will be formally saved and will appear in the "POLICIES" section with the status "NEW". The 2024 policy will also appear in the same list with the status "RENEWED".
This step is crucial to ensure that the 2025 policy is visible in your list of policies and does not remain just a quote.
While Apizeal manages the quote and renewal process, you cannot enroll policies in the Health Insurance Marketplace directly from Apizeal. Enrollment must be completed on the Marketplace's portal.
6. General Features: Use of Policy Status, Tasks, and Reminders
To help you manage renewals more efficiently, Apizeal offers additional features to facilitate policy tracking:
Policy Status: Use statuses such as "Pending," "In Progress," or "Completed" to monitor the state of each policy. These statuses give you a clear overview of the renewal process's progress.
Tasks and Reminders: Create tasks or reminders related to each policy. For instance, you can set a reminder to follow up on a specific policy after receiving additional client documentation.
These features will help you stay organized during OEP 2025, avoid delays, and ensure that renewals are completed in a timely manner.
With this guide, we hope you can efficiently manage the policy renewal process during OEP 2025 in Apizeal.
If you have any questions, contact our team via the technical support chat from your Apizeal user account. The chat is available Monday to Friday during business hours.
You can also reach us via the contact form available 24/7, and you'll receive a response as soon as possible 🤓👍🏼.