I found myself repeating “ACA is still the law of the land” ad nauseam to confused HR professionals, colleagues, and even friends and family. We're seeing the cost of gridlock in the individual health insurance market. It's also disheartening to hear advisers tell clients to sit tight. Nothing else—cost, consumerism, competition—stopped, so we're a year further down the line and no closer to real, needed solutions.

Shandon Fowler, founder and principal, Four8 Insights

Vocabulary shift

In 2017, I set out on a mission to change the perception among benefit advisers about “voluntary benefits.” I chose to adopt the term “enhanced” to replace “voluntary,” and I've written social media posts and commentaries about why this change is needed.

As we close out the year, I'm proud of the fact that I am helping lead the charge to break the “voluntary” status quo. Slowly but surely, I'm noticing more industry professionals adopting the term “enhanced.”

Finally, one of the most incredible parts of my 2017 has been joining the Agency Growth Mastermind Partnership, spearheaded by Nelson Griswold and his partner Scott Cantrell. This group of industry thought leaders has made me a better benefits adviser and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of it.

Eric Silverman, owner, Silverman Benefits Group

Race to differentiate

I've been in the employee benefits space for more than 30 years and see tremendous opportunity ahead. We recently found that 83 percent of employees with health care coverage and no voluntary benefits are open to enrolling in voluntary benefits through their employer—and don't expect their employer to pay for them.

What keeps me up at night? Well, with tremendous opportunity comes increased competition and all of us need to differentiate ourselves. All the more reason to listen to the customer and design products and services around what they want and need, communicate clearly and honestly; and focus on the value your solutions provide.

Dan Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing, Trustmark Voluntary Benefit Solutions

Lack of clarity

When Anthem Blue Cross announced that they were leaving most of California for individual health plans, the media did not report it properly. We received hundreds of phone calls and emails from people asking why Anthem was leaving. Anthem's decision did not affect employer groups or seniors; however, the media did not differentiate and we were inundated with inquiries.

Since we have evolved into an HR and benefits consulting firm over the past two years, we have helped a number of new clients become employers of choice. Our staff feels great when we help an employer become more compliant and efficient, with happier and more engaged employees. The low point for the industry is uncertainty and confusion. Given the lack of progress on repealing and replacing the ACA (or even just repairing it) employers and employees are frustrated and concerned. It's hard to be comfortable with your health insurance when you're not sure when the shoe will drop.

Barry S. Cohn, president, CEO, Really Great Employee Benefits

Mixed results Highs for 2017

• Many of my groups were able to obtain favorable renewal offers from their existing carriers, eliminating the need to change and disrupt their employee populations.

• The carriers are offering competitive plans and rates to the market.

• In December of 2015, my firm was acquired by Acrisure, a national firm. This brought additional resources to our agency and clients and continues to be a favorable experience.

Lows for 2017

• Confusion and discussion on repealing ACA

• Individual market negatively affected by rising premiums

Steve Hall, market president, Alltrust

Chipping in

Highs

Seeing our beta testing become successful for the API Connection with Employee Navigator and their partners. I was the first beta-tester, and helping contribute was really rewarding.

We made major progress in becoming more transparent as agency leadership and engaging in more authentic conversations across our company about what the future holds.

Adding more non-insurance services that our internal staff are executing, versus up-charging from outsourced vendors, has been a huge confidence builder.

Lows

• Uncertainty about the final direction of legislation has really taken a toll on both sales and support, while not having clear and actionable answers takes a toll on staff and clients.

• Sales overall have been down and everything being stagnant feels weird for a sales organization.

Bret Brummitt, senior consultant, A.G. Insurance

Helping out

2017 has been a year of seemingly ongoing crisis. From hurricanes and wildfires to Manchester and Las Vegas, it's been hard to process.

Employers must now provide advance resources, critical-incident response and follow-up to ensure employees are stabilized and back to production. We have seen a spike in clients needing assistance in dealing with difficult circumstances.

I'm proud that we're in a position to provide support and help build resilience for employees and families in need, but it's unfortunate that these crisis services are becoming increasingly necessary.

As a female executive in the industry, a high point for me has been a stronger emphasis on, and acceptance of, mental health as part of overall well-being. There is less stigma associated with emotional wellness and self-actualization for women, and the rise of self-care and stress management resources and conversations is beneficial for the health and productivity of the workforce. Plus, corporations with happy, healthy employees enjoy stronger culture and are more profitable. Win, win!

Erin Krehbiel, president, ACI

Educational opportunity

More workers are looking to employers for answers to their financial wellness. This has greatly increased the value of voluntary benefit programs. When set against an industry low point of 2017—widespread confusion and anxiety about future changes to health care—I see a great opportunity for brokers to differentiate in a more competitive market and better serve clients with a broad range of solutions.

This year also saw more competition in the broker space for voluntary benefit products. As consulting fee revenue or commissions have been impacted by reform, consultants and brokers are looking for other ways to retain/maintain revenue in their existing accounts, so we have seen more broker-of-record changes than ever. Our business achieved some remarkable benchmarks in 2017, including again being named among the “Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the U.S.” and surpassing $2 billion in total revenue. We also launched one of our largest, most complex clients in our history. Through concentrated effort and some creative solutions, we were able to do so, exceeding both the client's and our own expectations.

On a personal note, I was awarded a new title, with new responsibilities and teams to manage, which required me to grow. While not always easy, it has expanded my understanding of the business and my relationships within the company.

Elizabeth Halkos, chief operating officer, Purchasing Power

Decision support

One of the highs of 2017 was how we as an industry are better educating employees about voluntary insurance. Employees want choice and customization, but are often left confused by traditional benefits communications.

The industry took great strides this year to close the employee knowledge gap by evolving and refining decision support tools. Mobile-responsive design, use of everyday terms and animated video messages are becoming more common. Some of these decision support tools go so far as to type employees by a persona and use tailored messaging. This type of communication helps employees better understand the benefits available and how they may meet their unique needs—which can lead to higher enrollments.

Kevin McNamara, senior enrollment strategist, The Standard

Partnerships

This year, we integrated with Employee Navigator, which, in addition to automating the management of HSAs, FSAs, HRAs and COBRA for our clients, allowed us to launch our new consolidated billing service. By partnering with us on this, employers can allow their staff to concentrate on more business-critical objectives. This is a win-win and we are very excited to expand this service in 2018.

Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (QSEHRAs) were not as popular as anticipated. QSEHRAs provide an outstanding opportunity for small employers to help employees offset the cost of medical premiums on the individual marketplace by funding HRAs. However, carriers are shying away from paying commissions on the individual market—group insurance agents are not pushing the QSEHRAs as a result.

Mike Benefiel, marketing specialist, NueSynergy, Inc.

What you can control

2017 started out with the prospect of a lion, but will go out like a lamb with an executive order in its mouth. With a lack of legislative action, we focused this year on solidifying our clients' experiences and rounding out our offerings. Highlights include:

• Great client retention

• Securing our captive partner and joining as an employer

• Identifying and implementing cost containment strategies in our market

• Launching award-winning wellness program

• Investing in additional resources and education for our consultants

CGI experienced modest growth in a year where we saw a decrease in BOR activity. We continue to work with our clients to understand market and national trends. Of particular interest is the effect millennials will have on the workforce.

CGI has also made significant investments to ensure our clients have tools and resources at the ready to address change.Michael Gallagher, senior benefits consultant, CGI Business Solutions

Yoyo effect

2017 was challenging from a compliance standpoint. The most difficult aspect was managing the expectations, messaging and stress created by the ACA “yoyo” effect.

On a good note, insurance/benefits were at the top of everyone's minds, so it gave the industry lots of attention. The best part for my firm was that we brought unique holistic solutions to the marketplace that are causing a healthy disruption to how benefits are delivered and patients are engaging.

Pat Isaac, ACBC, chief executive officer, Capital Services

Growing the family

2017 brought a lot of uncertainty in regard to the new administration and health care reform—we weren't sure if it was going to be a high or a low. Ultimately, our business model remained pretty consistent and we were able to stay in front of it for our clients.

We saw a huge push down market for benefits technology. Smaller sized clients are seeing the ROI of outsourcing their benefits administration and investing in technology. Given our position in the small-group market, this was an opportunity and we are now able to offer solutions where it was previously cost-prohibitive.

Our high point was seeing our success manifest in internal growth. Working in insurance is a hard sell to recent college grads, but our focus on wellness, technology and strategic consulting has helped us paint the picture of opportunity. With our community involvement and close-knit culture, we've been able to grow our employee family, which makes me extremely excited to see where 2018 takes us!

Lauren Erxleben, vice president, client service, NFP / The Meltzer Group

Eye on washington

2017 was a whirlwind of a year. I think employers across the country entered this year with an eye on Washington, and even heading into 2018, are still wary. I expect this will continue and is one of the reasons why the benefits industry has been so slow to adopt new technologies and strategies to improve employee wellness.

On a personal and company level, 2017 was a major success in our efforts to improve employee well-being. We launched our live client support center and a new sales office based off our recent success with an employer of more than 80,000 individuals—where we saw a five-fold increase in engagement within the first year. We were recognized by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator in their Health Data Aggregator Challenge and at HIMSS17 by the Intelligent Health Alliance for most innovative health care solution.

Dinesh Sheth, CEO, Green Circle Health

Wait and see

In a compliance sense, both a high and low point for 2017 is that we started the year believing that the ACA was going to be repealed and possibly replaced.

Before the election, we were giving presentations about the positions of the candidates. It's since shifted to monitoring developments as the various repeal and replace proposals came and went. We're still at a wait-and-see point, just as we were at this point last year.

An industry high point is the expansion of voluntary benefits. Employers continue to look to enhance offerings beyond standard medical, vision, and dental plans. Voluntary benefits becoming more popular include critical illness coverage, pet insurance, financial wellness and pre-paid legal.

Employee attraction/retention strategies are top-of-mind, and employers are taking benefits into consideration to attract and retain employees.

Cory Jorbin, compliance officer, employee benefits, HUB International

The broker's role

This year has seen continued speculation surrounding the importance of the broker's role in the employer-insurer relationship, with brokers often cut out of the equation. We recognize the fundamental role brokers play in benefits management, so a high has been establishing stronger, deeper relationships with broker partners.

The health insurance industry also predictably saw a lot of consolidation, largely brought on by an aging broker workforce and a lack of younger professionals. This has added pressure for brokers, leading to widening workloads and larger books of business. One of our key successes has been giving brokers an adaptable platform to meet their evolving needs.

Scott Evans, chief product officer, benefitexpress