Businesses are consistently turning to software solutions to manage their employee benefits. In particular, for U.S. organizations, their leading value proposition for staff is remuneration packages. Overall these remuneration packages most commonly comprise payroll, annual leave, 401K pension payments and additional industrial entitlements, and health insurance.
In essence, the benefits managed and delivered through these human resources (HR) software systems are highly important to employees. Fundamentally then, these platforms need to be comprehensive, robust, and secure. Emphatically speaking, because these platforms handle sensitive private user data there needs to be reliably secure data storage.
So with this expanding software vertical of health insurance enrollment software, what are the technical features that make platforms secure?
Over the course of this A3logics blog explainer we’ll provide an analytical overview of this health insurance enrollment software covering:
- System features, business processes and types of user data handled in these platforms
- Current trends in this software vertical and what’s coming next
- Using system features to encourage user and organizational security best practice
- Risk managing common threats to user data in HCM software
- Leveraging in-built compliance components to protect user data
Now let’s dive into this HCM software market currently exceeding $22 billion USD and how it’s helping businesses achieve goals.
Key facts businesses need to know about health insurance enrollment software
To begin, let’s review this market and why it’s a core type of enterprise software. Right now, Verified Market Research found that the HCM market is growing at a CAGR of 37.82% for 2023-2030. Because this software incorporates and streamlines countless HR and business tasks it’s enabling more productive, secure, and compliant organizations.
Cision PR Newswire explains that the crucial value of this software vertical lies in how it optimizes operations. “HCM software and services streamline critical processes such as sourcing, hiring, payroll, candidate monitoring, staff scheduling, and time and attendance management, leading to enhanced workforce efficiency and productivity.” Then the software delivers macro benefits of driving organizational growth through better workflows, security, and improving daily tasks.
Core operations and tasks handled in health insurance enrollment software
- Recruitment — Organizing candidates, processing and filtering applications, and analyzing applicant profiles.
- Onboarding — Training new team members through immersive digital systems for professional development.
- Performance management — Data collation to review staff productivity and key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Staff support — Simplifying and rerouting HR resources freeing specialist personnel to provide hands-on support to all team members.
- Benefits enrollment and administration — End-to-end platforms for all staff remuneration entitlements and partner programs. This includes: payroll, annual leave, health insurance, other leave types (parental, carer’s, sick leave), retirement funds, and others.
- Collaboration — Integrated systems enable staff to collaborate across locations whether they are onsite, remote, or hybrid employees. Then this encourages better team outcomes, productivity, and organizational harmony.
- Resource management — Staff scheduling, project planning, and time and attendance reviews to evaluate productivity, hiring, and compliance.
- Compliance — Systems set-up comprises relevant regional and organizational obligations for risk management and high-level fulfilment.
Other ways health insurance enrollment software delivers value for businesses
- Scalability to organizations — Businesses can opt for features that match up to their needs rather than paying for unused components. Simultaneously they can scale their software as their organization grows and operations expand.
- Suitability for all organizations — Large-sized and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can use HCM software irrespective of their industry.
- Accessibility — Cloud and web-based software mean businesses can operate teams across locations without hosting software locally. Furthermore this encourages flexible working so businesses can manage tasks without complicating operations or compromising productivity.
- Integratability — Options for productivity and project management software like Slack, Zoom, and Google Drive abound. This eliminates any team silos and simplifies collaboration irrespective of location or department.
- Legal obligations — Compliance functionalities in HCM software ensure businesses observe their policy and legislative obligations. This equips HR team members to systematically check compliance while integrating new, intelligent strategies for managing these high-level responsibilities.
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Options for investing in HCM software for health insurance enrollment
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) — Many leading HCM software options are SaaS so businesses can choose cloud-based, subscription products that require no server upgrades.
- Custom solutions — Businesses can still deploy a SaaS product built with a software development company as an externally-hosted proprietary HCM platform.
- Scaling — As businesses expand operations and benefits — such as introducing health enrollment packages — they can add new features to their software.
Business processes and types of user data handled in health insurance enrollment software
Now that we’ve reviewed the general HCM software vertical we’ll turn to the specifics of health insurance enrollment software.
Why businesses need to understand that health insurance enrollment software can help with staff satisfaction and retention
Above all, it’s important to note that although all business markets have changed post-pandemic, health is profoundly affected. For example, McKinsey reports that U.S. health benefits for employees and organizations are shifting in response to two factors. These are inflation and endemic Covid-19 that lead to businesses considering benefits cuts from fully-insured to self-insured. Therefore it can be considered that businesses need their benefits offerings to be recession resistant while ensuring user data security.
Another aspect to this that is relevant is how employees approach their benefits entitlements. Even if businesses are able to offer comprehensive and competitive benefits packages, these need to be easily accessible to employees. Hence using software systems that are accessible, user-friendly, and employees are encouraged to use is paramount. What’s more, data shows that attraction and retention are core priorities for 75% of U.S. employers. Moreover, a Pew Research study found that 43% of U.S. workers left jobs in 2021 because benefits weren’t good.
So the core issues here that businesses can use health insurance enrollment software to solve are through the following benefits:
- Promoting health enrollment and supporting staff to complete their enrollment entitlements
- Ensuring staff derive maximum enrollments value and that businesses aren’t losing out in the entitlements they’ve made available
- Facilitating positive, collaborative work environments that keep staff engaged, productive, and advancing professionally
- Offering dynamic, appealing remuneration packages for health, pay, leave entitlements, and work conditions
How businesses handle their employee user data in health insurance enrollment software
When businesses are onboarding their staff members to HCM software platforms, a high volume of sensitive data is being handled. Because health data is sensitive, personal in nature, and individuals can be identifiable by it, systems need to be trustworthy. Furthermore, they need to be demonstrably secure and practices need to be sustained to protect both workers and entire organizations.
User data handling in health insurance enrollment software
Employment information
Employees nearly always have to submit extensive personal information as part of their onboarding process. For example, HR typically requires their first and last name, date of birth, contact details and home address for databases.
Remuneration information
Highly confidential personal staff information around payroll, annual leave, and retirement payments will be documented across financial departments. Due to how employees receive this pay, how they take their leave, and where they’re at in their professional timeline, this information remaining private is important.
Benefits enrollment
When employees enroll in their employer’s benefits program, they can maximize a range of health and lifestyle offers. Not only is this personal information but also if employees are accessing more sensitive services then they’re likely avoiding disclosures.
Feedback and performance data
Though seemingly innocuous, the type of feedback and KPI data gathered through HCM systems should rightfully remain confidential. Generally most correspondence and professional now happens through software so secure storage for even this less-identifying data is paramount.
How security works in health insurance enrollment software
Overall HCM software — particularly around health insurance enrollment — is designed to be highly secure. Further to this, core software features are engineered to support businesses in their compliance responsibilities. This applies to legal data protections for both their employee data and any other stakeholder data.
When employee health data is stored in health insurance enrollment software, businesses must adhere to regional and national data regulations. While businesses are aware of the European Union’s GDPR laws (General Data Protection Regulation), this differs for U.S. organizations. Right now, U.S. states like California and Colorado have specific privacy/data protection laws however there’s no federal law. Therefore, businesses are working to stay ahead of widespread changes to data protection for general risk management and future changes.
Health insurance enrollment software systems are designed to have the following core features that facilitate user data security:
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Security infrastructure
The entire system should have comprehensive security engineering. This value proposition facilitates quality assurance that tests that software will withstand attack and protect data.
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Cloud-based and web-based systems
Because the majority of modern HCM systems are not centrally deployed they’re harder to attack and business servers aren’t used. While this reduces attack vectors, it also mitigates the risk of old systems being a sitting duck for cyberattacks.
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ONC-ATCB certification
When businesses are storing highly-sensitive user health data they should check if their system meets health compliance security criteria. For example, ADP AdvancedMD Electronic Health Record Software has ONC-ATCB certification.
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Data encryption
Most HCM software automatically encrypts data so users must be authorized to access files and user records.
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Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and password complexity
In line with data encryption, MFA and password standards fortify data security so that all user activity is managed. When software has these settings it maintains another layer of security that deters criminals and protects data plus data owners.
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Limited access
Systems that only allow authorized users to access specific data are much less vulnerable than those with open access. The combination of limited access and high-level authentication requirements work to deter bad actors and also minimize any errors.
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Audit trails
Following on from access is how most systems will have an audit trail that records access events and user activity. Though this might not deter a user who wishes to enact a one-time event, this helps risk manage and resolve issues. As an accountability tool this also streamlines compliance obligations and other core business operations.
Comparing health insurance enrollment software to standard enterprise and traditional HR systems
Unlike other software systems, this era of HCM software is engineered for modern operations and data security. Thus older databases are neither fit for purpose to handle open enrollment processes nor the challenges of data breaches.
Why businesses should use health insurance enrollment software to combat cyberattacks
Due to the rising risks around cybersecurity and how cyberattacks try to exploit user data for extortion or financial hacks this type of enterprise software must be robust and secure. Consequently how health insurance enrollment software incorporates compliance features to adhere to complex regulations and standards makes it highly valuable. Subsequently using software that meets the highest standard of global best practice is a strong strategy that protects stakeholder interests.
Additionally with remote and hybrid teams businesses likely don’t have the existing cybersecurity infrastructure to handle more complex threats. Basically cybersecurity threats are increasing because criminals see an opportunity with overloaded and underperforming systems to exploit weak spots. When there’s highly sensitive private health information capable of breaching, it makes sense to opt for modern cloud-based systems. By design, health insurance enrollment software works via cloud or web as a reliably secure database system.
Should businesses make sure health insurance enrollment software is HIPAA-compliant
Equally using HCM software that adheres to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prioritize data security helps, too. For the most part, HIPAA-compliant software is what U.S. businesses need in their health insurance enrollment software. In order to check this, businesses should risk assess their software features in advance of inputting employee data. Properly deploying HCM software set-up in consultation with a development company is part of this risk assessment. Then HR employees and management can focus on how they onboard all team members to immediately establish data security.
Health insurance enrollment software user experience (UX)/user interface (UI) features that promote data security
Undeniably then health insurance enrollment software is designed to effectively and reliably secure user data for organizations of all sizes. Indeed the infrastructure can help businesses stay secure, manage risks, and adhere to compliance responsibilities.
Nonetheless, there is another angle to the technology features in this software that makes a significant difference: UX and UI. As workplaces shift with a new, younger generation, People Matters emphasizes that HR needs to factor in digital experience. Further to this, they explicitly attest, “…HR departments need to enable employees with the tools they need to succeed in the workplace.” With this focus on UX/UI and the rising risks of user data breaches, software features pivotally shape security practices.
Six ways UX/UI in health insurance enrollment software can heighten user data security
1. Intuitive technology
With the in-built intelligent features including AI, algorithmic, and machine learning functionalities, UX can be personalized. Further to this, the UX and UI can be predictive to prompt security-oriented behaviors. Whether with pop-ups that suggest password changes or making security processes easy, consistent functionalities support data protection practices.
2. Remote security practices
Security practices that go beyond the user ensure that they’re empowered to uphold the aspects within their control. For instance, most HCM software is cloud-based and designed for security integrity freeing users to focus on their responsibilities. Even so, the remote security features are part of their processes so they are able to adhere to best practice.
3. Training
A leading feature of HCM software is how this supports staff training. Both onboarding and ongoing skill development are embedded in the platforms so users can complete self-directed training. Additionally they can easily undertake mandatory training. As this is an interactive component of these systems this promotes consistency in practice and advanced skill finessing. Because this is all in-system it can support business processes around security, data management, and organizational standards.
4. Access restriction and MFA
Digital hygiene requires both systematic and processes of user accountability. When employees work with a UX/UI requiring digital hygiene in access and ongoing security standards this becomes organizational culture. Not only does this create individual and collective accountability but also it makes everyone a contributor to data security. Equally this helps eliminate data leaks or weak links in software systems.
5. User-based access controls
Simple, user-centric navigation additionally supports a UX/UI that promotes secure user data. Because employees can effortlessly find their core entitlements information, enroll in benefits, and engage with HR services, security is maintained. Specifically all security protocols can be remembered and upheld when every other part of the UX is straightforward. Otherwise it’s laborious to complete tasks and users approach access without care or respect for overall standards.
6. Device access management and integration
Freeing users to work on their preferred devices — mobile, desktop, tablet — across locations can also foster positive security practices. Although this can introduce weakness points, generally HCM systems are designed for multi-device integration and security. When businesses trust their staff to work responsibly and personalize with integrated systems and third-party productivity tools, positivity ensues. Consequently, the consistent platform design and security infrastructure ensures best practice while facilitating a workplace that’s productive with data integrity.
Why businesses need to design a user data privacy culture for health insurance enrollment software
Overall it’s difficult to empirically quantify or qualify if this definitively makes user data more secure. Nonetheless People Matters illuminates that happy employees focused on UX/UI in professional tools see positive outcomes in most areas. “Technology that boosts self-service, gives employees greater flexibility can not only increase adoption rates, it can also help ensure digital transformation success, and consequently ROI.”
So we largely know that security features are comprehensive and these tools have a focus on protecting user data. Undoubtedly businesses need to be looking at their user data security needs and how they encourage security at every level.
Moreover the U.S. International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) promote organizations building a culture of privacy. This takes privacy principles and compliance technologies then marries them with training, policies, and strategy. Aaron Weller and Emily Leach implore that, “A culture of privacy provides a shared understanding of how personal data can and should be used to support broader strategic objectives.” Instead of total software dependence — including UX/UI benefits — businesses need a holistic user data approach for health insurance enrollment.
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Risk managing common threats to user data in health insurance enrollment software
Lastly businesses still need vigilance around threats to user data in their health insurance enrollment software. Both internal and external threats are legitimate issues that cost businesses millions while also potentially affecting employee welfare and safety. As per 2022 figures, Harvard Business Review reports that “data breaches arising from insider threats and simple mishaps can cost businesses an average of $7.5 million annually”.
Common threats to user data in Health insurance enrollment software
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Phishing
Employees may be coerced either passively or actively to disclose their data or organizational data to bad actors. Should this happen then both the user and their colleagues are vulnerable to extortion, impersonation, and direct theft. In order to risk manage this, businesses need to ensure their staff understand phishing threats and how to recognize them. Additionally it’s relevant to make clear to users that every person’s data is valuable and a dynamic asset.
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Ransomware and malware
Systems becoming infected from these attacks can lead to widespread infection, destabilizing, and breaches. Afterwards this can lead to business losses and personal impact. Protecting data in this case involves users being conscientious around what they download the networks they’re joining to access software.
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User error
Chiefly this is risky in any business context as every person can make mistakes that lead to data becoming compromised. Before this happens, businesses need to educate and train their teams around how to avoid damaging and costly errors. For instance, designing and implementing privacy culture to protect data and eliminating risky behaviors. Also businesses need to share risk management knowledge among teams to ensure every employee understands best practice risk management. Concurrently automating certain security principles such as multi-factor authentication and mandatory strong password resets helps eliminate risk.
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Access weakness
Finally access weakness exists when businesses are lax around protecting their systems on an access level. For example, not restricting access to data or letting legacy systems stagnate without software re-engineering both create points. Therefore evaluating access as a vital line of defense in HCM software ensures all team members understand their credentials. At the same time, businesses should regularly audit access points and data trails to check for weaknesses then resolve these.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the health insurance software technology market is likely going to continue its growth into the foreseeable future. Both the advent of smarter technologies and digital transformation in HR practices make this a logical turn of events across industries. Comparatively the user data volume being handled is also exponentially growing and with rising threats, businesses need to protect stakeholders. Understanding threats and how to protect users is fundamental.
Though businesses might have established systems or they’re changing platforms, working with experienced HCM software experts like A3logics is beneficial. Start with a consultation to learn about new system features and options specific to the business. Whether for a full custom software solution or a roadmap strategy, begin with expert input to plan an effective implementation.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How does health insurance enrollment software compare to HCM software?
Health insurance enrollment software is the same as HCM software. For businesses and organizations, these platforms incorporate core HR and benefits processes.
This software includes:
- Reports and analysis for HR data
- Recruitment, training, onboarding, and professional development
- Employee insights and performance management
- Scheduling and resource management
- Entitlements organization for payroll, retirement superannuation, annual leave, and other remunerations
- Benefits enrollment for health insurance
- Productivity and collaboration for project management
To evaluate what’s needed, meet with HCM software development company for a comprehensive consultation.
Why should businesses invest in health insurance enrollment software for their user data security?
Due to the software system design, these platforms are innately highly secure and cloud-based or web products. Therefore user data is securely managed and encrypted through best practice security systems. When businesses seek to upgrade their HR system, they subsequently have products with integrated, secure databases with restricted access.
Is health insurance enrollment software suitable for small and medium enterprises?
For businesses across all industries, health insurance enrollment software is suitable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It is also suitable for large enterprises. Although businesses with a smaller than average employee team (less than five employees) may not find the software entirely necessary, it’s still beneficial for technical advantages, security, and comprehensive features.
What technical features health insurance enrollment software support compliance for U.S. businesses?
A leading benefit of health insurance enrollment software is how it supports compliance for regional and international legislation. When U.S. businesses are operating in that region, they need to be aware that privacy regulation is not federal. Subsequently, businesses in the U.S. should check if their HCM software is HIPAA-compliant. In order to check this in detail, meet with an experienced health insurance enrollment software development company while also reviewing compliance obligations.

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