
October has rolled around, and once again its time for Open Enrollment – two words that shake every American to their core who has to choose their health insurance for the following year.
Ugh.
The thing is – even as a health or patient advocate who works in this dysfunctional healthcare world every day – you’re probably squirming, too! Determining the best choice for yourself raises all the worst frustrations any of us can have; so the thought of having to help your clients or potential clients make these choices isn’t something we get excited about.
We’d rather put our heads in the sand.
Most people really just don’t want to deal with making a choice. Each year, unless they have learned that their current plan will no longer be available, they avoid thinking about it by defaulting to the plan they currently have.
That could be costing them a LOT of money and even more importantly, preventing them from getting the care they really need.
Even if you don’t think you know enough to help them – YOU can come to the rescue! You can help them get the information they need, and make the choice that is best for them through little effort on your part, while setting the stage for your CORE work – income producing work – in the future.
How?

You can use Open Enrollment as a marketing opportunity in a variety of ways, some requiring almost no knowledge of how to choose the right insurance plan. You’ll be providing resources and support, and best of all, garnering trust among the very people who will – in the future – hire you to support them through their healthcare journeys.
Prepare to Use Open Enrollment to promote your practice:
Determine the profile of the people you hope to help with Open Enrollment. Who among your clients – and prospective clients – needs help? Seniors? Cancer patients? Young couples? Adult children?
Next, reach out to a few of them and ask them what kinds of help they need. If they aren’t sure, you might ask them if they could use help with these kinds of specifics:
- Has their current plan served them well? Was it affordable? Were the co-insurances and co-pays fair? And even – is it going to available next year?
- Do they understand the terminology used by health insurance, like co-pays, premiums, deductibles, etc? They can’t make good choices if they don’t understand the words used to describe what they are paying for.
- Are they interested in looking at alternatives?
- Are they possibly going to be eligible for Medicare in the next year? (They will if they turn 65 next year.)
Once you have a good handle on what your clients wish to learn, you can begin to pull together the resources they will need. Here are some examples:
For those under 65
Make them familiar with Healthcare.gov which provides FREE help to choose the right program. This is a federal government service, set up in the early days of Obamacare, that assists people with finding the best insurance. The beauty is, no one receives any sort of commission, making it objective and comprehensive.
For those over 65, or turning 65
Direct them to the SHIP program for the state you live in. SHIP stands for State Health Insurance Program, and like Healthcare.gov, it helps American Seniors choose the right program for themselves. Important: There is so much negative information about Medicare Advantage programs (as there should be!) – but some Seniors can benefit by them. SHIP programs, which are administered in each state, are set up to help advise on the right sort of program for each Senior. Like Healthcare.gov, there are no commissions involved, so the service is objective.
Terminology is always a problem
Few people (with the possible exception of those who work in a health insurance environment!) really understand insurance terminology. CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) offers a wonderful handout/download which you can share with clients. Glossary of Health Coverage and Medical Terms
How to Use this Information for Marketing
Using the basics above, plus any other resources you might find, you can begin your marketing outreach.
- You might call clients and prospective clients individually to offer the resources you’ve found. Here are some possibilities:
- You might create a webinar to go over the resources with a small group and offer it at senior centers, churches, temples, or through online video (Zoom, Teams, Meet).
- You might mail postcards that invite them to phone you to support their research into a better plan.
- You might do an email blast – early (by the end of October), then a few weeks later, then, after weeding out those who have already called you – closer to the end of the Open Enrollment period (early January). Here are this year’s Open Enrollment benchmark dates.
- Find more information about using Open Enrollment for marketing purposes in this post: Rev Up Your Practice Marketing Mojo with Open Enrollment