(Credit: CMS)
Executives at eHealth Inc., a health insurance broker, say COVID-19-related work-at-home rules may help the company develop a more productive sales force.
The Santa Clara, California-based company was one of the first U.S. companies to sell health insurance online. It has been selling Medicare plans, individual and family major medical insurance, and supplemental policies through the web, through its own agents, and through outside agents.
Scott Flanders, eHealth's chief executive officer, said Thursday that eHealth has found that its own, career agents convert more prospects into customers than external agents do; that shifting the career agents to working at home further increased the career agents' productivity; and that second-year agents have about a 30% higher prospect conversion rate than first-year agents do.
Resources
- A copy of the latest eHealth earnings release is available here.
- A link to the latest eHealth earnings call webcast is available here.
- An earlier article about eHealth's earnings is available here.
The company now gets about 90% of its revenue from selling Medicare plans, and the rest from selling individual and family major medical coverage, small-group plans, and supplemental coverage.
The main selling seasons for Medicare plans and individual and family major medical coverage run from mid-fall to mid-wnter.
Traditionally, eHealth has hired and trained many of its new agents in the summer, and it has lost many of the agents at the end of the main enrollment periods.
Because of the currrent high levels of unemployment, "I do think we will get a higher caliber of agent this summer than we did last summer," Flanders said.
Flanders said eHealth measures recruit quality by looking at the rate at which new agents pass licensing exams.
The company is also expecting a lower level of agent turnover this year Flanders said.
"That will reduce our recruiting and training expenses, and give us more seasoned agents going into the fall," Flanders said.
One reason that eHealth can now hire more of its own internal agents is that it now can have the internal agents work at home, in any location, rather than having the agents come into an eHealth office, Flanders said.
