Having a broker portal can either be an advantage or disadvantage for your MAPD health plan.? Reliable, and easy to use broker portals help agents do more business with your plan.? Ask yourself the question: “If my broker’s experience is poor, do I think they are going to give me more or less business?” ? Here are the top 5 capabilities that brokers look for in a portal:
- Faith in Commissions: Brokers want to be paid on time for the correct amount.? MAPD commissions are complicated and if you are managing them manually and don't offer easy transparency into how they are paid then chances are your brokers have questions and may be prioritizing other plans.
- SOA (Scope of Appointment) and Enrollment Tools: Your broker portal should provide SOA capabilities for its brokers. It should offer enrollment tools to help them educate potential members on plan offerings.
- Ability to Order Marketing Materials: Your broker portal should grant brokers the ability to order and or download sales and marketing materials, such as brochures, enrollment kits, and presentations.
- Ability to Access Information Quickly: If your broker support team is spending a lot of time answering commission questions, managing enrollment kit requests, and other general questions about your health plan's offerings then chances are your brokers are waiting for answers and frustrated. Chances are your broker support team is frustrated and overwhelmed too.
- Broker Dashboard: A broker dashboard page provides an overview of important information and tasks for brokers, such as commission statements, new business opportunities, marketing collateral and client information.
Overall, a broker portal should be an easy-to-use, secure platform for brokers to access and exchange information with the health plan, as well as providing tools and resources to help them succeed in their roles. Health plans that offer these capabilities in their broker portal often see an increase in membership.
