Health Plans Fight Standards, Consultant Says

For one thing, Markland said, "the country is big."

But the companies with national ambitions suffered another serious problems, Markland said: many of the big carriers that dominate specific regional markets have no incentive to support anything resembling industrywide technical standards.

Standards might help benefits technology firms improve Web-based enrollment and administration systems, but those same systems could help small carriers compete more aggressively with the dominant carriers, Markland said.

So far, the organization with the most visible effort to set health enrollment standards has been the HR-XML Consortium, Raleigh, N.C., a nonprofit group spearheaded by large recruiting companies, temporary health companies and benefits consulting firms, observed Markland.

Although some health insurers and managed care companies support the consortium, in general, "the carriers are not jumping religiously behind it," he said.