eHealth, Inc. EHTH partnered with BerniePortal to bring CHOICE arrangements, formerly known as ICHRAs, directly into BerniePortal’s benefits administration platform. The deal connects employers and brokers using BerniePortal with eHealth’s individual health insurance marketplace and licensed agents.
Employers can provide workers with a defined contribution, while employees use those dollars to shop for and enroll in individual or family health plans. eHealth will support needs analysis, plan comparison, onboarding and enrollment, while BerniePortal handles the administrative side. The setup also allows brokers to keep agent-of-record status, helping preserve existing client relationships while adding another health-benefit option for employers and employees over time.
The partnership gives eHealth access to a meaningful new distribution channel. BerniePortal works with more than 5,000 employers and over 1,000 insurance brokers, creating a sizable pool of potential users for eHealth’s marketplace and agent services. Employees can access hundreds of ACA-compliant plans instead of relying on a single traditional group option.
The companies also point to average healthcare cost savings of about 17%, based on eHealth analysis comparing individual and group plan rates across six states. The combination of employer cost control, broader employee choice and simpler administration could make CHOICE arrangements more attractive to smaller businesses over time.
The agreement could support eHealth’s enrollment growth by adding employers and brokers as a source of customer traffic. More workers shopping through eHealth may translate into additional approved applications and commission revenue, depending on adoption and plan selection. The partnership could also improve customer acquisition efficiency because BerniePortal provides an established distribution network.
EHTH Price Performance
Shares of eHealth have declined 81.7% over the year to date, compared with the industry’s 16.8% fall.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
eHealth currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Finance space are Assurant, Inc. AIZ, CNO Financial Group, Inc. CNO and Equitable Holdings, Inc. EQH. While Assurant currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), CNO Financial and Equitable Holdings carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) each. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Assurant’s current-year earnings is pegged at $22.28 per share, which indicates 12.7% year-over-year growth. It has witnessed five upward estimate revisions against none in the opposite direction in the past 60 days. AIZ beat earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, with an average surprise of 17.7%.
The consensus mark for CNO Financial’s current-year earnings is pegged at $4.74 per share, which indicates 16.2% year-over-year growth. It has witnessed two upward estimate revisions against none in the opposite direction in the past 60 days. CNO beat earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, with an average surprise of 23.2%.
The consensus estimate for Equitable Holdings’ current-year earnings is pegged at $7.18 per share, which signals a 15.6% year-over-year increase. It has witnessed four upward estimate revisions against none in the opposite direction in the past 60 days. EQH beat earnings estimates in three of the last four quarters and missed once.
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eHealth, Inc. (EHTH): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).