Whereas open enrollment remains to be months away at most employers, now could be the time for HR leaders to use learnings from final 12 months that may make the 2026 profit choice interval extra profitable.
HR leaders and advantages groups could not know what’s preserving staff from specializing in their advantages selections, however they do know that is an costly enterprise. The Kaiser Household Basis 2025 Employer Well being Advantages Survey paperwork that common household premiums reached $26,993 in 2025, a 6% improve that outpaced wage development of 4%.
The report additionally discovered that staff are contributing a median of $6,850 towards household protection. The typical deductible for single protection has climbed 43% during the last decade, now sitting at $1,886. These numbers present that advantages selections require time, focus and the power to ask follow-up questions.
Nevertheless, listed here are among the pitfalls that reared their head throughout open enrollment final 12 months, every a sign to HR leaders about what may want to alter for this 12 months.
Profit questions occur across the clock
Greater than 20% of advantages questions arrived outdoors normal enterprise hours, with practically 10% extra coming in on weekends, in line with a brand new report from HR service platform Cascade AI, which analyzed 1000’s of anonymized worker questions requested throughout open enrollment this fall. The analysis discovered that staff have been tending to enrollment selections at night time, on cellular gadgets and within the margins of their day.
Greater than an FAQ is required
When Cascade’s AI gave staff an nameless, always-on channel to ask no matter they wanted, the character of the questions modified. Cascade discovered that 59% of classes concerned 4 or extra exchanges with staff constructing on earlier solutions, testing situations, and circling again.
One worker requested 59 questions in a single sitting, working by HSA mechanics, crucial sickness situations and household protection choices in sequence.
Learn extra: Employers have helped rein in healthcare prices, however the struggle isn’t over
Value issues trigger anxiousness
KFF requested employers how involved they believed their staff have been in regards to the affordability of advantages. Solely 20% of huge corporations believed staff had a excessive degree of concern in regards to the affordability of value sharing.
Nevertheless, Cascade’s behavioral information tells a distinct story about value fears. “Workers ran worst-case math again and again, stress-testing what occurs when issues go mistaken, in line with the report. “They’re anxious about making the mistaken name.” Workers expressed issues about managing a number of specialist visits, a high-cost prescription or a service change that disrupts present care relationships.
Community transitions aren’t simple
KFF analysis supplies context for why the transition anxiousness Cascade documented is rational moderately than uninformed. Eight % of corporations supply slender community plans, and practically one in three employers acknowledges gaps in well timed entry to psychological well being companies.
When an worker is questioning late at night time about whether or not their therapist remains to be lined below the brand new plan, they don’t seem to be being unreasonable, as a result of community adjustments and entry gaps could make protection continuity unsure.
The character of questions is altering
Cascade additionally tracked a year-over-year change within the character of worker questions. In 2024, staff requested foundational questions equivalent to what advantages have been and the way they labored. In 2025, they arrived able to determine, asking which plan made sense for his or her particular household, their particular childcare prices and their particular tax scenario. Well being plan comparability questions grew from 38% to 55% of all exercise in a single 12 months, in line with the report.
KFF’s information helps clarify what staff could also be pondering. The unfold between common PPO and HDHP household premiums is sort of $3,000 yearly. Selecting accurately requires mapping particular person healthcare utilization onto every plan’s deductible, out-of-pocket most and cost-sharing construction.
Cascade discovered that when staff had entry to a device that would cause by their circumstances, they used it, and so they stopped defaulting to final 12 months’s plan. Whereas this examine was produced by a vendor with a industrial curiosity within the consequence, that is nonetheless perception that HR leaders can use even when they don’t use a brand new device throughout subsequent 12 months’s open enrollment.
“The subsequent frontier for AI in open enrollment isn’t answering extra questions,” in line with Cascade’s report. “It’s closing the gap between understanding and motion.”
