Benefitfocus Expands BenefitsPlace™ with First-ever Property Product Suite and Full Choice of CDH Partners

CHARLESTON, S.C., March 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), a leading cloud-based benefits management platform and services provider, today announced the availability of a wider range of benefits products on The Benefitfocus Platform® for personal wellbeing and security at every stage in life. For the first time, personal lines insurance, including auto and renters coverage, is now available to brokers through Benefitfocus BenefitsPlace™. The company has also added greater choice of consumer-directed healthcare (CDH) account options and expanded the life insurance product offerings available within BenefitsPlace.

The new offerings made available through BenefitsPlace provide employers and brokers the ability to offer employees products from leading brands as part of a simplified enrollment experience that brings all benefits together in one place. Insurance carriers and specialty product suppliers gain a dedicated digital distribution and enrollment channel to more than 23 million consumers on the Benefitfocus Platform.

“These additions to offerings available to brokers within BenefitsPlace reflect extensive research on what types of new products consumers wanted, identifying auto and home insurance as the biggest areas of need,” said Ray August, CEO, Benefitfocus. “Offering property options through licensed brokers gives customers access to industry-leading brands and outstanding coverage at discounted rates they wouldn’t be able to individually access. In the future, we look forward to delivering further on our promise to provide a broader range of specialty offerings so employees can bring their best selves to work.”

New Insurance Products Provide Flexible, Personalized Consumer Protection
Employers and their brokers now have the option to offer workforces and clients access to personal auto, renters and life insurance through BenefitsPlace. The platform also uniquely allows employees to purchase insurance at any time during the year, not just during open enrollment, giving consumers the flexibility to purchase coverage to meet their personal needs.

Personal auto insurance will initially be offered by three major insurers, all of which have “A” ratings or better by A.M. Best Company. The breadth of coverage options can meet drivers in nearly all categories, including preferred, standard and non-standard coverage. Bristol West Insurance Group®, a member of the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies®, is now part of BenefitsPlace, focusing exclusively on private passenger automobiles across the United States.

MetLife Auto & Home®, a leading personal lines insurance group, insuring nearly 3.5 million autos, homes, boats, and other property nationwide, is now part of BenefitsPlace, providing auto insurance products and experience to customers across the country through the platform. Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company and its subsidiaries, Warwick, RI, operate collectively under the MetLife Auto & Home brand. Their coverage, rates, discounts, and policy features vary by state and product, and are available in most states to those who qualify.

The first provider of renters insurance to join BenefitsPlace is Toggle^SM, launched by Farmers Insurance® in 2018. Toggle provides a modern, fully digital, customizable insurance subscription designed to meet the unique needs and budget of today’s renter.

BenefitsPlace will also include Afficiency, an InsurTech that is working with life insurance carriers to create innovative solutions for BenefitsPlace. Together, Benefitfocus and Afficiency are building a brand new portable voluntary benefit, that will be exclusively tailored for BenefitsPlace and the brokers it serves.

Expanded CDH, COBRA and direct-billing options provide greater employer/employee choice
In addition to the Benefitfocus consumer directed healthcare account administration launched in 2016, the company will also offer CDH options through best-in-class service providers PayFlex and WageWorks. The new providers are integrated into BenefitsPlace through real-time API connections, ensuring the data exchange is synchronized, accurate and available to employees in real time. The new experience also includes year-round education and communications to help consumers maximize their CDH contributions – including the triple-tax benefits of funding their HSAs, as well as ensuring they understand how to alter contributions all year long as things change in their lives.

These additions to BenefitsPlace represent the beginning of the company’s expansion into an even greater array of differentiated solutions, which Benefitfocus is exploring through InnovationPlace, its new startup partner program. The goal of InnovationPlace is to help Benefitfocus enable innovative product and services for the consumers of BenefitsPlace. The company has recently welcomed its first InnovationPlace partner, which is an innovator in women’s health. To learn more about InnovationPlace, visit www.benefitfocus.com.

*Insurance Agency Disclaimer
Insurance products are offered only through duly licensed and appointed insurance agents, as well as independent third party agents, including Benefitstore, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Benefitfocus.com, Inc. Benefitstore operates in CA as 627 Benefits Insurance Agency and in NY as 627 Insurance Broker Agency. The information herein is not an offer to sell insurance. No binder, insurance policy, change, addition and/or deletion to insurance coverage goes into effect unless and until confirmed directly with a licensed agent or carrier. All coverages are subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the actual policy issued. Not all policies or coverages are available in every state.

Platform carriers operate independently and are not responsible for each others’ financial obligations. A.M. Best Company ratings are an independent opinion of financial strength and the ability to meet ongoing insurance policy and contract obligations. The nine rating levels are based on a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative evaluation of balance sheet strength, operating performance and business profile.

About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT) unifies the entire U.S. benefits industry on a single technology platform to protect consumers’ health, wealth, property and lifestyle. Our powerful cloud-based software, data-driven insights and thoughtfully-designed services, enable employers, insurance brokers and carriers to simplify the complexity of benefits administration and deliver a world-class benefits experience. Learn more at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results or performance might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: our ability to maintain our culture and recruit and retain qualified personnel; management of growth; the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; our ability to compete effectively; the immature and volatile nature of the market for our products and services; risks related to changing healthcare and other applicable regulations; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of charge within the Investor Relations section of the Benefitfocus website at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec-filings or upon request from our investor relations department. Benefitfocus assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

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SOURCE Benefitfocus, Inc.

Company Codes: NASDAQ-NMS:BNFT