Related: How uncertainty over ACA is affecting health care

So even if an employer is squarely rooted in a state, the rules and mandates within that state and the changing landscape at the federal level can be exceptionally confusing. If brokers work with multi-state employers, those challenges are exponentially magnified. Employers will need reliable brokers to help them stay on top of these complexities. In turn, brokers need to understand how the solutions they provide to clients are affected by changing legislation and by crossing state lines.

Aversion to change

The health insurance coverage that existed ten years ago is gone. Those low deductibles with low copays plus low monthly premiums are no more. Yet, many employers — and even brokers — are holding onto the past and resisting change that has already happened.

An astounding variety of solutions have popped up to address gaps in care and coverage within this new reality, including direct primary care, telehealth and more. When presented with new solutions, a common knee-jerk reaction may be, "My employees wouldn't want that. They'll want what they've always had." But if you ask the employees themselves, you'll likely get a different answer.

You see, there's often a disconnect between what employees want and what those offering their benefits think they want. In many cases, it's a generational difference and, while young professionals are screaming their approval of these alternatives, it falls on deaf ears. For example, the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that millennials are more than twice as likely as baby boomers and one-third more likely than Gen Xers to be interested in telemedicine options. Millennials are also much more likely to value and participate in proactive wellness programs like seeking counseling on stress management and taking mindfulness classes.

What happens when this cohort — now the largest generation in the U.S. labor force — is offered benefits hand-selected by someone who doesn't share their priorities? To succeed in 2020, benefits brokers need to acknowledge this possible disconnect and find ways to bridge the gap between what employees want and what their employers—those making benefits decisions for them—think they want.

Creative bundling  and communication

The good and bad news for benefits brokers in 2020 is that there are endless combinations of benefits ready to be pieced together. Some of these solutions are just what employees are asking for, but you need to be willing to get creative and bundle them in effective ways and communicate those packages clearly.

Also read: Virtual care 2020: What's next?

Those are two very different challenges: bundling the solutions and then communicating them effectively. They also require skill sets that brokers haven't had to hone as expertly in years' past. You'll likely need to come up with combinations this year you've never pieced together before. Some of the solutions are rather complicated or, at least, unorthodox in their approaches. They'll require top-down education to communicate it first to employers, so they understand the value of what they're considering and how it operates differently from what they've traditionally had and, second, to employees so that they know what steps they'll need to take to enroll in, or engage with, their new benefits.

Solutions like direct primary care and telehealth can help reduce costs and can give the majority of today's workforce the transparent and accessible health care they want. As a benefits broker, you're tasked with being a change-maker in 2020, whether you choose to see yourself that way or not. The status quo is no more. Traditional solutions are long gone. Many employees already accept that and are hoping for better benefits from their employers. This is the year to meet them where they are and help them bridge the gap.

Andy Bonner is the CEO/Co-Founder of Healthcare2U, an integrated, hybrid direct primary care organization.