ACA Member Retention Strategy Tag

The End of Passive Renewal: Why ACA Member Retention Is Becoming a Marketing Challenge

For years, many health plans could count on a significant percentage of their ACA members renewing coverage with little or no action required. While annual notices, plan updates, and regulatory communications remained important, passive renewal helped smooth the path to retention.   That landscape is changing.   As CMS continues to strengthen Marketplace integrity, increase eligibility verification requirements, and move toward more active consumer participation in the renewal process, retaining ACA members is becoming less of an operational exercise and more of a health plan marketing and member engagement challenge.   The plans that succeed in the coming years will not simply offer competitive products. They will be the plans that make renewal easy to understand and easy to complete.   The Shift Away from Passive Renewal   Recent CMS rulemaking and Marketplace policy changes reflect a growing emphasis on enrollment accuracy and consumer engagement. Policymakers have expressed concerns that automatic renewals can perpetuate outdated eligibility information, inaccurate subsidy determinations,...