Kaiser Permanente Offers Online Enrollment for Individual Health Plans
Kaiser Permanente recently began offering online enrollment for its Personal Advantage plans, which are targeted at individual purchasers of health insurance. The initiative marks one of the first examples of an insurer offering online enrollment through its own Web site, according to Gary Morgan, Kaiser's director of sales and account management. According to Kaiser, online enrollment reduces the processing time for enrollment by eliminating paperwork. So far, the online enrollment option has generated nearly twice as much interest as anticipated. In December, Kaiser received 136 online applications, compared to the 75 to 80 applications officials expected. In mid-January, Kaiser had already received 134 additional applications, Morgan said. Morgan said the Personal Advantage program was designed to appeal to market segments that prefer to use "modern tools," such as young adults, older populations, and the newly unemployed -- many of whom may have lost their jobs as the technology industry has receded (Herochik, Business Journal of Portland, 2/8).
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