Enrollment forms for the digital age.
How Benefytt uses Adobe Acrobat Sign to streamline enrollment for health insurance customers and grow its business.
350K
Enrollment forms
processed with
e-signatures last year
Objectives
Support business growth as the company shifts to selling Medicare plans
Meet Medicare customers’ needs for ease of enrollment as they grow more tech-savvy
Streamline internal processes to handle growth, including HR and compliance
Protect customer privacy and data security
Results
Processed over 350,000 enrollment documents with e-signatures last year
Enabled fast and easy enrollment on any device with embedded signature capabilities
Helped HR hire up to 400 new employees in time for open enrollment
Adopted a more secure e-signature solution that can trace and audit workflows
An insurance company pivots on its digital foundation
Travis Conley started working in the insurance industry in the late 1990s. Back then, people were just beginning to think about the prospect of a fully paperless office. Today, he’s helped make it a reality.
Conley is Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Benefytt, a health insurance technology company that helps people compare benefit plans and enroll in health coverage that works for them. Benefytt recently shifted its focus from selling short-term medical plans to selling Medicare plans – targeting a population projected to grow to more than 80 million people by 2030.
“Each new generation of Medicare recipients is more tech-savvy than the last,” says Conley. “We need to make sure we can keep up with their rising expectations for simplicity and convenience.”
For Benefytt, that means providing frictionless enrollment processes and all the digital capabilities people have come to expect. The company is already ahead of many large insurance providers, in that 90% of its customer interactions are electronic.
“Benefytt has used Adobe Acrobat Sign for years to provide e-signature capabilities to our customers, making it easy for them to sign up for health insurance coverage without all the paperwork,” says Conley. “Our business model wouldn’t be possible without it.”
That gives Benefytt an advantage in an industry still dominated by paper-based processes. Customers benefit from a shorter, less confusing enrollment process. Salespeople find it easier to do their jobs. And the company itself has found that Acrobat Sign gives it the agility needed to drive its new strategy in the Medicare marketplace.
From skeptic to evangelist
When Conley joined Benefytt, the company had already been using Acrobat Sign for a few years. At first, he was skeptical and determined to make a case for the solution he was already familiar with — DocuSign. But he quickly changed his mind.
“We put Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign head to head, comparing the features and numbers,” Conley says. “Adobe ended up being the right decision — and it’s still the right decision today.”
Benefytt pulls e-signature capabilities into its documents using Adobe Acrobat Sign APIs. That makes it easy for customers to fill out enrollment forms and sign disclaimers electronically, whether on desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Usability and accessibility across devices help Benefytt accommodate older customers who may not be comfortable with digital technologies or have trouble seeing the screen.
Acrobat Sign is also a big perk for salespeople, as Conley points out. “Sales teams work on commission, so they need to finish each sale quickly and move on to the next customer,” he says. “With a seamless process to handle enrollment forms on the back end, salespeople aren’t waiting for customers to fax or email documents or wondering if forms have come in.”
Benefytt handled more than 350,000 e-signature transactions last year, and it expects the volume to be even higher this year. Having seen the positive impact on customers and sales teams, Conley is advocating for Acrobat Sign adoption by other areas of the organization.
“Benefytt is looking at hiring 300 to 400 employees this year to ramp up for the Medicare open enrollment period. Adobe Acrobat Sign has suddenly become critical for HR.”
Travis Conley CTO, Benefytt
Trust and engagement through e-signatures
Security is a top priority for Benefytt, and Acrobat Sign’s security and authentication capabilities help the company protect the privacy of its customers.
“Security and technology are the core focus for the whole company. We handle a lot of personal data and private health records – and our customers rely on us to help protect that data,” says Conley. “The only way we can continue to earn their trust is to show we do everything we can to safeguard their data. Acrobat Sign helps us achieve that.”
With that level of trust and security, Conley feels comfortable persuading other areas of the business to adopt Acrobat Sign. That includes HR, which is responsible for growing the workforce as Benefytt moves from an outsourced sales model to direct sales, driven by an internal team.
“HR always understood the value of Adobe Acrobat Sign but hadn’t taken full advantage of the application,” says Conley. “Now, Benefytt is looking at hiring 300 to 400 employees this year to ramp up for the Medicare open enrollment period. Acrobat Sign has suddenly become critical for HR.”
The HR department now uses e-signatures for onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between. It’s an enormous help as the company hires hundreds of new employees – many of whom won’t have the chance to meet with HR in person before they start, given the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. In addition Acrobat Sign helps HR make sure its processes are compliant by keeping an audit trail of documents and signatures.
Conley is also working with the head of compliance on using Acrobat Sign to manage contracts. “We constantly handle non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and other documents,” he says. “By moving those documents through Adobe Acrobat Sign, we’ll make it a lot easier to manage interactions. It’s a big win for this group.”
What’s more, the COVID-19 pandemic convinced Benefytt’s board of directors to adopt Acrobat Sign as they started meeting remotely. The pandemic has made it clear how important it is to share meeting minutes, financial reports, and presentations digitally. Using Acrobat Sign, board members can acknowledge receipt of these documents electronically, which helps company leaders track activities and ensure compliance with corporate governance rules.
Beyond paperless – leading the way in digital
While the larger insurance industry typically struggles with legacy processes and infrastructure, Benefytt is moving full speed ahead.
“Benefytt is a relatively young company and digital-first in everything we do,” says Conley. “That’s a huge benefit for us when it comes to agility and profitability. But we can’t slow down. We’ll either succeed in the digital space or we won’t be around for very long.”
The company’s next big initiative involves rolling out Salesforce to its sales and marketing teams. Conley sees it as an opportunity to take digital documentation and e-signatures to the next level by potentially integrating Acrobat Sign to further streamline enrollments. It would be another important step in Benefytt’s evolution, which has already gone far beyond the paperless office Conley envisioned years ago.
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