In this edition of Executive Perspectives, Pete Caporale, VP of Product at Benefitfocus, shares his thoughts about the future of the benefits industry, how data is enabling more personalized member experiences, and how Benefitfocus’ acquisition by Voya Financial® has opened up a new world of opportunities for improving the benefits journey.
Q: What are you most excited about in the benefits industry this year?
A: The exciting thing for me is our chance to influence change and help people make optimal decisions about their health and financial wellness.
When you look at how the industry has evolved over the years, it's become very complicated. As a benefits professional, I navigate it every day, and it's complicated for me at times. I constantly think about the individuals who are dealing with this once or twice a year and trying to make the right decisions for their families.
Voya and Benefitfocus are uniquely positioned to provide tools that present individuals with the information they need in a way that's easy to consume and understand, so they can make informed decisions for their families.
I’m also excited about our ability to service our clients differently. Historically, we have been focused on ensuring they have great technology. The power of Voya and Benefitfocus coming together is that we can now use our technologies to help individuals make the best decisions for them in two of the most important areas of their lives: health and financial wellness. As an organization we are committed to simplifying benefits and financial wellness in a way that is possible when you bring together two established principals in the space to focus on a common goal.
We also know we have a great opportunity to help the HR professionals that dedicate themselves to taking care of employees. While we strive to make the experience easier for the end user, we are also committed to the HR admins and professionals who use our services. We are focused on putting information at their fingertips and providing a great service that allows them to focus on other things that are critical to growing their business. Ultimately, we have an opportunity to make it a streamlined experience for everybody. We don’t take that lightly and continue to enhance the experience to benefit everyone who uses our platform.
Q: How is Benefitfocus using technology to enable better benefits experiences?
A: We’re working to release a product that will create what we’re hoping will be a fantastic experience for everybody who touches it, whether they’re a client, an end user or an internal user.
We are lab testing many of the newest technologies available today — AI is a big focus — and we are moving deliberately to make sure the technology we use supports our vision, is safe in our environment and creates the right experience for our users. We’re particularly focused on using technology to enable personalized experiences because we believe that is the future of the benefits industry. AI is still in its infancy, and despite the excitement over its potential, we are making sure to have the right guardrails in place to use it responsibly. That said, we have already deployed AI in several areas of our system and will continue to layer it into future platform enhancements to the user experience for employers and employees.
Q: What’s exciting about the Voya Financial acquisition?
A: What excites me most about the Voya acquisition — and part of the reason why I'm here — is the ability to help people in a way that’s impactful to their health and financial wellness.
Health and financial wellness are increasingly linked for employees. Financial health and physical wellness play a big role in the average family's life. With Voya and Benefitfocus coming together, we have a great opportunity to help educate people so they can make the right decisions for their families.
I've worked with some pretty big health and financial services administrators over my 26 years in the industry. Everybody knows these two things are linked, and now Voya Financial and Benefitfocus have the power to bring them together.
When you combine our technologies, we can truly help people understand their financial and health picture and guide them to the right decisions based on data specific to their family. That is a powerful tool that can help people make informed decisions that better their lives. It is exciting to know we can touch so many people in a way we likely could not as separate companies.
Q: How will data change the future of benefits?
A: Part of the power Voya and Benefitfocus have together is our ability to use real data about an individual to help them make better, more informed decisions.
That could be using claims data to help them understand where their money is going and how to choose the right health plan for their needs. It could be looking at the contributions they make to plans, like a 401k or Health Savings Account (HSA), to make sure they're maximizing their benefits.
It could be offering guidance to help them decide whether to put more money in their 401k or their HSA. That can be a tough decision that people struggle with, and we have an opportunity to educate them on where they can spend that next dollar in a way that is both meaningful and unique to that individual.
Q: What is Benefitfocus doing to support benefits advisors?
A: At the end of the day, brokers and consultants care about creating the best results for their clients.
We need to care as much about the brokers who are trying to serve their clients as we do the clients themselves. You can't isolate them from each other and expect that if you just service one, the other's going to come along for the ride. You have to look at your solutions and make sure you’re providing the right experience for everyone. Brokers play a key role in the industry, and we look at them as another end user of our product that needs the tools necessary to serve their clients. We are an extension of them, and we take that role very seriously. Ultimately, if we all work together to create a better health care system and a better retirement system, we can influence real change. Brokers, employers and benefit administrators all play a crucial role in that.
Q: How important is it for benefits technology and services to be user-centric?
A: It’s crucial, especially if you want to effect change in an industry. Every client is unique and so are their employees. Technology needs to personalize the experience to the individual user to be effective.
When you think about a client as an individual entity and make it so they have to match up to your technology, you're really limiting yourself. A big part of any technology product is making sure you understand how it can impact the clients that use it. Assuming one size fits all really limits your ability to service the individual needs of your customer. Our platforms are built to be flexible and expect variability. Decision support, navigating amongst all your benefits, and help when seeking care are just a few ways the power of Voya and Benefitfocus bring together a personalized user-centric experience. We have a long way to go, but I am extremely excited about what we will accomplish as a combined organization.
Q: Any closing thoughts?
A: The one thing I'd like to close out with when people are thinking about how Benefitfocus will make an impact on the healthcare ecosystem is this:
We care. We care a lot.
It's our goal to make every single interaction personal. We keep challenging ourselves to create personalized experiences that will make people feel they aren’t just on a website, they’re in a place where they can get real information that is there to help their family.
If people walk away feeling that way, we've done our job. Until then, it's only 1% done.
Artificial intelligence (AI) may pose inherent risks, including but not limited to: issues with data privacy, intellectual property, consumer protection, and anti-discrimination laws; ethics and transparency concerns; information security issues; the potential for unfair bias and discrimination; quality and accuracy of inputs and outputs; technical failures and potential misuse. Users of AI-based technology and tools should take these risks into consideration prior to use of the technology.
Benefitfocus.com, Inc. and its affiliated companies (collectively, “Benefitfocus”) is making available to you the Personalized Decision Support tool offered by SAVVI Financial LLC (“SAVVI”). Benefitfocus is a Voya Financial(“Voya”) business. Voya has a financial ownership interest in and business relationships with SAVVI that create an incentive for Voya to promote SAVVI’s products and services and for SAVVI to promote Voya’s products and services. Please access and read SAVVI’s Firm Brochure, which is available at this link: https://www.savvifi.com/legal/form-adv. It contains general information about SAVVI’s business, including conflicts of interest.
The information presented is for general information purposes only. Some of the products and/or product features discussed in this presentation may be works in progress, not yet generally available for sale and subject to change.
Any opinions expressed within do not necessarily reflect those of Benefitfocus.com, Inc. or its affiliates and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any plan or individual. All fiduciary duties remain the responsibility of the plan sponsor. You should contact your financial professional, attorney, accountant or tax advisor regarding your individual situation.
Benefitfocus.com, Inc. assumes no obligation based on the information presented and does not guarantee actual results.
For use by employers and benefits professionals only.
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