Health insurers invest heavily in open enrollment, yet members still miss deadlines, default into auto-renewal, or pick a plan that no longer fits. This post breaks down five reasons open enrollment communication fails, and how personalized video effectively addresses each one.
Nearly half of U.S. workers spend 30 minutes or less reviewing their options before choosing a health plan for the entire year, according to a Unum survey. Health plans spend months building open enrollment campaigns for that 30-minute window, and members still end up in the wrong plan, missing a better rate, or auto-renewing into coverage that no longer fits.
One problem? The format of open enrollment communications isn’t user-friendly for how members make their decisions.
Key takeaways
- Nearly half of workers spend 30 minutes or less reviewing their options before an open enrollment decision that sets their coverage for a full year (Unum).
- Most people with Medicare say comparison tools like CMS star ratings don’t influence their plan choice at all, according to KFF. The tools exist, but they don’t show what changed for the individual member.
- A national health insurer’s shift to personalized video for member engagement drove a 271% increase in response rates, per SundaySky.
- 58% of insured adults hit a coverage problem in the past year, and 60% don’t know they have appeal rights, according to KFF. Most support only arrives after a member is already stuck with a decision made in the dark.
- Personalized video closes each gap using data health plans already have: plan details, enrollment status, and eligibility, rendered individually for each member.
1. Generic plan comparison materials aren’t helping members understand what changed for them
In focus groups, most Medicare beneficiaries said the star ratings used to compare plans didn’t influence their decision, according to a 2023 KFF report. That’s because a star rating says little about what’s different for a specific member’s situation, like a premium increase, a network change, or a formulary update. A broad comparison chart can’t show a member what it means for their own renewal.
The fix: a personalized video that shows each member what’s changing in their plan this year. Instead of a star rating or a static comparison grid, the member sees their premium, network status, and next steps. SundaySky’s video personalization capabilities can sync with the plan data health insurers already maintain, so the comparison is most relevant to the person watching.
| Generic comparison chart | Personalized member video |
| Same star rating or chart shown to every member on the plan | Shows this member’s own premium, network status, and plan changes |
| Member has to find what changed themselves | Leads with the one or two things that changed for them |
| Built once, doesn’t update as enrollment status changes | Rendered at the moment of play from live plan and enrollment data |
| Built to be read closely and completely | Built for a 30-minute decision window |
2. Open enrollment terminology is dense, and comparison tools don’t adapt to what confused members
A quarter of insured adults find terms like “deductible” or “copay” confusing, and almost a quarter can’t determine which providers are in network, according to KFF. Those are the things a member has to weigh to choose the right plan for them. A static comparison chart shows everything at once, when members just want to know what matters for their plan.
The fix: video that walks a member through their plan choice in plain language tied to their personal numbers rather than sending them an exhaustive glossary of insurance terms. For example, messaging like: “Your new plan’s deductible is $500 lower, and your doctor is still in network” instead of just defining “deductible” for someone who already knows what it means.
See how this looks for your own open enrollment communications—book a 15-minute walkthrough with SundaySky.
3. Members typically give open enrollment materials 30 minutes or less, so a dense guide never gets read
Nearly half of US workers spend 30 minutes or less reviewing benefits materials before they enroll, per Unum. A multi-page enrollment guide or a full plan comparison packet is built to be read closely and completely, but the decision window most members have doesn’t allow for that.
The fix: a short explainer video made for a 30-minute decision rather than a 30-page packet. A two-minute video that leads with what’s changing and shows a member their numbers better fits the time members dedicate to the decision. When asked how they’d most like to learn, 63% of people say a short video, ahead of every other format, per Wyzowl’s 2026 Video Marketing Statistics report.
4. Open enrollment outreach happens once at the beginning, instead of a sequence building to the deadline
Most open enrollment communications go out once at the start of the window, and then wait for the member to act. Employers now spend nearly $20,000 a year per employee on health coverage, and members are still confused about what they’re getting for it, according to a June 2026 Digital Insurance report. One benefits executive quoted called the result “functionally uninsured”: covered on paper, unable to use what they have because nobody reinforced the message as the deadline approached. A single mailer at the start of a six-week window competes with everything else on a member’s plate that month.
The fix: a sequence of personalized video touchpoints across the enrollment window, each triggered by the member’s progress in their decision. For example, an early alert when the window opens, a mid-window comparison if a member hasn’t acted, and a late reminder as the deadline closes in.
5. Support is reactive, so indecision turns into a default auto-renewal that no longer fits
Of insured adults, 58% hit at least one coverage problem in the past year, per KFF, and 60% don’t know they have appeal rights at all. During open enrollment, that reactive pattern has a specific cost: a member who doesn’t act by the deadline gets auto-renewed into their current plan, whether or not it’s still the right one. By the time that member notices, often at the first claim of the new plan year, the window to change it has closed.
The fix: proactive, triggered video before the deadline. A status check-in that tells a member they haven’t enrolled yet, and what happens if they don’t, reaches them while they can still act. All of this instead of the call center handling a mass of confused members calling in.
Why personalization matters for open enrollment
Open enrollment is a prime place for personalized video. Insurers can segment by plan type or age group, and with SundaySky, take it a step further when precision really matters. Because a member’s eligibility or plan details can change daily across the enrollment window, video can render individually, in real time, the moment a member hits play, using whatever data is live in their record, with no file to rebuild mid-window or segment to reassign.
Help members take the right next step at every stage of their journey. Read 10 health insurance video use cases that drive results.
What the results look like
A national health insurer’s move to personalized video for member health engagement produced a 271% increase in response rates. The content was generated from each member’s data and specific enough to act on.
The same pattern shows up across health insurers using personalized video for open enrollment and Medicare Advantage acquisition: higher enrollment completion and fewer members defaulting into auto-renewal.
Frequently asked questions
What does personalized video mean for open enrollment communication?
It means the video itself reflects each member’s specific plan and enrollment status. One member sees their premium change, network status, and renewal deadline; another member on a different plan sees theirs. That’s different from a segmented campaign that sends one of three or four versions based on plan type, or a comparison tool like Medicare’s star ratings that gives every member on a plan the same number regardless of their individual situation.
Is personalized video secure enough for a HIPAA-regulated health plan’s open enrollment communications?
It needs to be, and that’s a baseline requirement rather than a differentiator on its own. SundaySky holds SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and HITRUST certifications, and the platform’s role-based access controls let health plans govern who can create, edit, and publish content created from member enrollment data. Security reviews still happen the way they would with any vendor. The certifications give a plan’s security and legal teams a documented starting point instead of a blank one, which matters when enrollment volume and data sensitivity both peak during the same window.
What data does a health plan need to personalize open enrollment video?
Most of it already exists in systems the plan runs today: enrollment status, current plan details, eligibility changes, and whatever’s stored in the member CRM. The gap usually isn’t data availability, but a way to connect that data to video production so each member’s version can be built and updated as enrollment status changes during the window. SundaySky Create connects to the CRM and data platforms health plans already run and uses that live data to render each member’s video at the moment it plays.
How is this different from a generic open enrollment reminder email?
A generic reminder tells every member the deadline is approaching. A personalized video tells one member their deadline is approaching, what happens if they don’t act, and what’s different about their plan this year. The urgency can be identical in both cases. The difference is whether the content underneath it applies to the person watching or to the average member on that plan. That distinction is also why personalized video tends to drive higher responses than a well-written generic reminder.
What results have health insurers seen from personalized open enrollment video?
Health insurers running personalized video specifically for open enrollment and Medicare Advantage acquisition report higher enrollment completion and fewer members defaulting into auto-renewal. The consistent pattern is that relevance over production polish is what gets a member to act before the deadline.
For a closer look at how health insurers put this into practice, see 6 Ways Health Insurers Use Video to Improve Member Experience and the Elevance Health case study.
To see how the same approach extends beyond open enrollment, see Scaling personalized CX with video.
The format (not the investment) is what needs to change
Health plans already invest heavily in open enrollment: campaigns, mailers, call center staffing, broker enablement. None of that investment closes the gap if the format doesn’t meet members where they are. What changes the outcome is content built around each member’s own plan and deadline, delivered in a format they’ll actually watch, sequenced across the window instead of dropped once at the start of it.
Book a demo to see how SundaySky’s personalized video platform turns the enrollment data you already have into video your members actually act on.
