ACA Express -vs- HealthSherpa

[jbage007]

Is GoHealth available on an independent contract basis?

I hate those ####tards to the death, but just wondering if their software works good enough to consider using, with the caveat that no business would be tied to them in any way, shape, or form.

 

[djumterps]

In the crunch of deadline, I don't think the support is there for any WBE and since Sherpa is transactional - I wouldn't expect them to be fast on response or expected support. Maybe you had a different arrangement with them. Not making any excuses. I did like the fact that I could kill the hung app and go elsewhere with the enrollment - even H.gov if necessary. At least I knew it was a clean break.

I had some apps on aca exp hang for 4 weeks and then they executed - potentially changing my received date and therefore change in commissions with UHC. cost me money with the incompetence. i had asked more than once for them to be killed off.

They all had problems last Tuesday from what I understand.

 

[TechBroker]

We are more than capable of dealing with problems, and were more than willing to accept that things out of their control are, well, out of their control. What is unacceptable is lack of responsiveness, notification, and contingency recommendations as they become available.

 

[djumterps]

agree with that. have gotten used to going to Plan B, C, D....

 

[ggiaco]

Wanted to draw attention to the post on the HealthSherpa thread, about HealthSherpa seeing 2/1 enrollments go smoothly and keeping our 100% free pricing at least through the holidays.

Original post:
http://www.insurance-forums.net/forum/health-insurance-reform-forum/health-sherpa-2016-open-enrollment-t76187-88.html#post1063021

The limitations we were seeing were largely out of our control and unpredictable, but we've tried to communicate via both e-mail and callouts on the application form. Ahead of the deadline we were recommending using alternative enrollment options.

If you have suggestions about how we could improve communication, we're listening. We're working on improving the notification system in the agent dashboard - to name one example.


We're listening to your concerns, and it pains us when things don't go as well as we'd like them to. We're channeling that energy to do better and continue offering the best, most comprehensive and compliant enrollment tool for the ACA.

----------

I would hands down choose Sherpa over aca exp except their pricing model.
I had no problems enrolling couples with them whereas I had to reenroll half of my couples on aca exp on another wbe.
Both do not handle kids under 19 but Sherpa does attempt with the medicaid question.
The few deals that hung on Sherpa were fixed by the kill switch next to it. A big deal when I enroll with other methods and don't want an overwrite of my enrollment.
70% of my aca exp hung and for almost a week.
I guess I'm the only one that felt the pain or honest about it.
Won't pay the money for Sherpa until a subscription pricing model

Just a heads up that HS has been free for most of December and staying that way through the holidays.

This was definitely not part of the plan a month ago, but now that we're here we're deliberating what our pricing will look like going forward.

 

[djumterps]

thanks for the heads up and will look forward to any changes.

 

[TechBroker]

Perhaps a simple indicator of Health Sherpa's agent communication style is the fact that there is no mention of, or link to their "agent support" portal on the dashboard.

FYI - it is support.healthsherpa.com

----------

One of the key issues facing online brokers is NPN attribution. NPN's get lost at every step of the pathway to the carriers. Carriers are highly motivated to ignore such loss as it represents a significant revenue gain if an NPN is not attached. Carriers make attribution as difficult as possible - in one case requiring the signature of the applicant on an NPN attribution form. For online web sales, this is simply impossible.

Imagine if the web brokers themselves could provide us the electronically signed attestation (that every customer must do at the end of their application), with our NPN printed right next to it, in a form that would be legally binding and usable as evidence with the carriers? This would be a huge value-add.

 

[WiscBroker]

I just had a very smooth enrollment with HS for an out-of-state client. In reality the quoting and subsidy application engine is much more user friendly with HS, and more detailed when checking along the way. I really prefer HS when it is working. However, ACAExpress saved my butt on Dec 14-17.

 

[AllenChicago]

I just had a very smooth enrollment with HS for an out-of-state client. In reality the quoting and subsidy application engine is much more user friendly with HS, and more detailed when checking along the way. I really prefer HS when it is working. However, ACAExpress saved my butt on Dec 14-17.

My sentiments exactly WiscBroker! ACAExpress was a huge butt-saver after HealthSherpa went on the lam last week.

The actual act of entering data on HealthSherpa's quote page and enrollment pages are easier than ACAExpress, in my opinion. Why?

With HealthSherpa, you simply type in what you want, in free-form, which is similar to how one completes a paper application. If you need to change anything at all at any place in the application prior to submission, you just move your mouse to that field, and type in the change.

With ACAExpress, you fill in sections and click "save", or something like that, after each one. After you finish/save a section of the application, it closes that section and opens the next one for completion. If you made an error in a "closed/completed" section, you can't go back to change it, I don't think. All I know is that it was a tad frustrating that I couldn't review everything I entered before final submission.

Also, I think ACA Express uses a special kind of script engine? At any rate, fields in their enrollment form where you have to make a choice, like "male" or "female" don't visibly show the choice I clicked on..regardless of browser. Think it's because I use Windows-10. But the apps were accepted by the Marketplace, so not being able to see the choices I made didn't mean anything. All info was transmitted...even what was invisible to me.

The experience of having both ACAExpress and HealthSherpa available must be what it's like to have two girlfriends. One is better at kissing (this is a PG-rated forum, OK?), but is a tad unstable, and prone to disappearing without notice. This other girlfriend always returns your calls, is never late for dates, but... well, you know.

 

[mschlange]

Tech broker what a brilliant suggestion.yes we need a form at the end to prove we are the agent on the account.
What do you think ACA Express and HS? Can you do this?