December 27, 2021
Update: Multiple Enrollment Groups (Split Policies)
Agents can now opt out of grouping applicants who've chosen the same plan. This feature was designed to support the needs of Agents in the following scenarios:
When one applicant is AI/AN, and the others aren't — the AI/AN applicant can retain their AI/AN benefit ($0 deductible/OOP).
When one applicant qualifies for CSR, and the others don't — the CSR eligible applicant can keep their extra savings.
When applicants want separate deductibles, etc. — the applicants can avoid having a family deductible.
To opt out of grouping applicants who choose the same plan, remove the checkmark that's highlighted below:
Click here for more information on how Multiple Enrollment Groups work on HealthSherpa.
November 30, 2021
Application change: existing coverage question
To improve clarity, we’ve added a second question to the existing coverage section in the application.
November 23, 2021
American Rescue Plan fields removed from export report
To ensure consistent performance and site stability, our team removed the following fields from the export report: arp_subsidy, arp_subsidy_change, and bronze_to_free_silver.
If you use the export feature, please keep the following in mind:
Large data pulls take longer. To avoid slow reporting for everyone, please pull reports one week at a time instead of a full season report beginning 11/1.
Export requests are processed in the order they are received. It may take a number of hours for your report to land in your inbox.
We thank you for your patience and understanding, and with these adjustments, the HealthSherpa system should run smoothly for the remainder of the Open Enrollment Period.
November 15, 2021
Addition to the Quoter: Medicaid/CHIP denied toggle
In the past, if a member of your client's household was eligible for Medicaid/CHIP, HealthSherpa would take them out fo the quote. Now, you can keep applicants on a quote who were denied Medicaid or CHIP.
October 26, 2021
Bulk Renewal Email Improvements
You can send an email to every clients who hasn't renewed through the "Renewal email" button at the top of your Clients table.
We've made the following improvements to let agents better customize their outreach:
Editable email subject line
Toggle the call to action button on or off
Please note you can only send a Renewal email to the same client 3 times in a week. Read our help article for more information.
October 18, 2021
For Agencies: Full Book access
From a HealthSherpa Agency Admin account, it’s now possible to give selected agents access to an entire agency-wide book.
This feature is similar to the Shared Book feature we launched last month, and it’s meant to add extra flexibility to our system for an agency’s needs.
Please note that an agent cannot be in Shared Book and Full Book at the same time.
September 22, 2021
Big update: Realtime Document Statuses
We’ve made enhancements on our backend, which translates to realtime document statuses on your Client List – no more clicking "Refresh" links! This will make it even easier to make sure your clients don't lose subsidy or coverage.
September 21, 2021
Now available: Cigna off-exchange plans 🙌
We’ve added Cigna plans to our off-exchange shopping and enrollment experience! Off-exchange plans are only accessible through an agent account on HealthSherpa, and Cigna plans are available for clients in AZ, KS, TN, MO, VA and NC.
Off-exchange shopping is a good option for:
Those who make too much to qualify for premium tax credits on-exchange could get Silver plans that are up to 30% cheaper off-exchange!
Those offered both an Individual Coverage HRA and Cafeteria (salary deduction) benefit for the cost of premiums.
If your client is interested in savings through premium tax credits or Medicaid / CHIP, you should check their eligibility on-exchange first.
Look for the quote button in the top right of your agent dashboard and click the dropdown to access the Quote off-ex feature.
September 20, 2021
Client email now optional on the application
For circumstances where the Client does not have an email, we’ve updated the application so Agents can skip inserting one.
Please keep in mind that if you don't list an email for a client:
They'll still get paper mail from the Marketplace
They won't be able to use their Consumer Dashboard which allows them to do their own servicing year-round. Learn more
September 15, 2021
For Agencies: Multiple Admin Accounts
Through HealthSherpa, Agency account owners (AKA Primary Admins), can now give other members of their downline the powers of their Admin account.
This feature is best for Agencies who need to give Admin-level permissions and access to other agents in their downline.
September 8, 2021
For Agencies: Shared Book
The Shared Book feature makes it easy for agents in your agency to access each other's clients and leads.
This can be useful if your agency has a call center model, or has captive agents, or just wants to let agents occasionally help each other's clients.
Once agents are added to the Shared book, they can:
Access the client and leads of every other Shared Book agent
Edit applications without updating the NPN
Make shared notes
August 18, 2021
New option to enter birthdate when quoting
The HealthSherpa quoter now accepts either the client's age or date of birth.
August 16, 2021
Downline Agent Search
From the Agency tab, Agency Admins can now search for a specific agent by name or NPN.
August 9, 2021
Multiple Enrollment Groups (Split Policies)
It’s now possible to enroll applicants from the same application in different plans through Multiple Enrollment Groups!
Enrolling applicants in different plans can be useful if they have varied health, provider and/or prescription needs.
How to access Multiple Enrollment Groups
After filling out the application, you’ll click “Shop Multiple Plans” from either the Eligibility Result (shown below) or Confirm Plans pages.
Then, you’ll be able to select subsets of applicants and shop their plan options.
Read our Multiple Enrollment Groups help article to learn more about how this feature works.
July 27, 2021
Client List sorting
You can now sort even more columns on your Client List and Lead list in ascending or descending order. Sorting by client name was one of the top requested improvements to the Agent Dashboard. Enjoy!
July 01, 2021
ARP Unemployment Subsidies
As part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), beginning July 1st, clients with at least 1 week of unemployment income in 2021 can gain additional subsidies. You're now able to view and apply the subsidy for eligible clients right through HealthSherpa.
You'll be able to mark "has received or been approved to receive unemployment income" in both the Quoter and on the Application to see these new, up-to-date subsidy results.
To apply the subsidy, just submit the application for new clients, or re-submit the application for existing clients.
For any clients who have listed unemployment income, you'll see a green banner on their Client Profile that shows how much they can save (see below).
Easily review which of your clients have unemployment income by looking at the has_unemployment_income column on your Export Report.
In effect, this additional subsidy makes clients eligible for a benchmark Silver plan that's $0. But it can be applied to the client's existing plan, or any other plan you'd like to change to.
Learn much more about this new subsidy and how to apply it on our blog post here.
June 23, 2021
Small Export Report update
When you do a .CSV export of your Clients List, you'll now see the dollar amount listed for any referral applications you submit in the referral_bonus_amount column.
June 16, 2021
Print improvements
We've improved the print quality on our 3 most printed pages:
Plans List
Plan Details
Compare Plans
Printouts on these pages now have a cleaner, more readable layout, and use less ink!
June 09, 2021
Jump backwards in the application navigation
You can now jump directly back to a previous step in the application navigation, without having to click back through each page. This will save time if you or your client need to add or update something from an earlier part of the app.
June 03, 2021
Referrals program updates
For anyone who has opted into our Referrals Program, you'll now be able to select any carrier you want to Refer. You can clearly view and edit Referred carriers from the updated Carrier Settings page, seen here:
June 1, 2021
HSA (Health Savings Account) filtering in Plan Shopping
You can now filter to only see plans that are eligible for an HSA.
HSAs allow your clients to contribute pre-tax dollars to an account that can be used to pay for medical expenses. Learn more here.
May 30, 2021
New columns added to the Export
We added two fields to the Client List Export Report. Learn more about the Export Report here.
1. EDE sync timestamp (last_ede_sync)
This field shows you how the last time this application has been synced with the Marketplace. This can particularly help when you're working to effectuate apps, you'll be able to see how recent the followup_docs and policy_status and effectuated columns are. To pull more recent follow-up, policy, or effectuation statuses, just hit the refresh buttons from your Clients Table or Client Profiles.
2. More details about an application’s NPN (npn_reason)
In the past, the npn_reason field only showed whether the Agent of Record (AOR) was you, HealthSherpa (in the case of a referral), or ‘Other’. Now, you'll also be able to see whether there is ‘No AOR’, or if the NPN is an ‘Other Party’. 'No AOR' can sometimes occur if the client makes application changes through HealthCare.gov.
May 27, 2021
Prescription search in the quoter
The prescription search feature is now back in plan shopping, and more polished.
Add your clients prescriptions to see their copay rates added to each plan card and Compare views.
Filter on any added prescriptions to see only plans that have copays for that prescription.
April 14, 2021
ARPA workflow improvements
Your ARPA subsidy workflow just got a bit faster! Now, when you click the "Apply the new subsidy" button, you'll see an option to either report updates or not—if you choose "not," you'll jump to the end of the application. This way, if an application doesn't have updates, you won't need to walk through each step.
April 01, 2021
ARPA subsidy tools
We’ve made some changes to the HealthSherpa site to help you apply APRA subsidies for your clients, target your outreach to new clients, and work as efficiently as possible.
1. Six new columns to enable your American Rescue Plan (ARP) outreach
last_submission_date: Allows you to see which clients have updated their eligibility since 4/1. If it’s blank, that means the application has not been resubmitted through HealthSherpa for the ARP subsidy.
FPL_ratio: Exact ratio for the federal poverty level (FPL).
ARP_subsidy: The estimated new subsidy under the ARP.
ARP_subsidy_change: The estimated change from the current subsidy.
bronze_to_free_silver: Indicates whether the client is eligible for a free silver plan because they are within 100—150% FPL.
has_unemployment_income: Identifies applications that included unemployment income as part of the last submission.
2. Updated subsidy calculations in the quoting tool
3. Our ARPA auto subsidy calculator, which will allow you to easily view whether a member is eligible for additional subsides in their client profile, and how much more they can save with ARPA.
4. Guided re-submission flow, which will give you in-product educational prompts to help you re-submit an app for a client.
March 02, 2021
Bonuses tab updates
We've rearranged the left navigation a bit. A new section called "Bonuses" now contains the Referrals, Broker Bonuses, and Associates sections. All three of these sections give you opportunities to make extra income through HealthSherpa.
February 15, 2021
Covid SEP
With the introduction of the special Covid SEP, we've made a couple updates:
You won't need to submit a Qualifying Life Event on the application
Any of your clients who use your marketing link won't need a Qualifying Life Event
Learn more details about this SEP here.