Obamacare Insurers Use Tech, Tenacity to Keep Customers on Board

Obamacare insurers, flush with a record 14.5 million plan members after a successful sign-up period, are facing a new challenge: how to keep the new enrollees from dropping coverage.

Every year, roughly 10% of marketplace plan members have their coverage terminated for nonpayment or other reasons. To maintain the new bumper crop of enrollees, some insurers will use artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and machine learning to identify members most likely to let their policies lapse. Eventually, all carriers will target their at-risk enrollees with phone calls, emails, texts, and letters.

Finding the right mix of technology and old-school outreach ...