Health insurance quoting software: Tech to accelerate growth

In a world of numerous dangers, more and more people want to protect their lives and health. Special teams of industry experts deliver various insurance benefits. As long as these firms are businesses, they rely on users, loyalty, and interest. The first step of the long customer journey focuses on engaging new clients and generating leads for insurance brokers or agencies. For this, a business requires dedicated health insurance quoting software. Further, we will talk about this type of digital tool.

The state of the L&H insurance industry in the United States shows that citizens tend to get personal protection more often. According to the report “Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Quarterly Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, January 2023 – March 2024,” more than 25 million Americans of all ages didn’t have health insurance at the beginning of 2024.

This means one thing — there are more than enough potential customers for your team to cover. If you want to get them quickly, consider using an efficient health insurance platform. 

What is health insurance quoting software? 

Health insurance quoting software is made for insurance professionals looking to facilitate, speed up, and boost quoting tasks — mainly through automation and intelligent organization. In particular, specialized software allows specialists to easily and quickly generate well-personalized, accurate insurance quotes for individuals, families, and businesses.  

Insurance agents, brokers, and carriers can leverage such software to reduce complexity and deliver better-tuned client experiences. An insurance quoting system can sync up policy databases and automate detailed calculations, providing instant, precise pricing based on specific coverage options, demographics, and market trends. 

For one thing, health insurance quoting software grants a proven way to forget about juggling manual paperwork or wrestling with spreadsheets that leave room for costly errors. Instead, this software lets agents focus on what matters — connecting with clients.  

Most quoting automation platforms come packed with features like real-time premium comparisons, smart plan filters, and built-in compliance checks, making pinpointing the best plans for each client’s unique needs easy. Many solutions also integrate with CRM systems, providing a seamless and effective way to manage client data, track interactions, and follow up on leads. 

For clients, the benefits are just as significant. The technology pushes transparency and convenience to the forefront, allowing consumers to explore a variety of plans and costs in just minutes. Some tools even include self-service portals, empowering clients to compare policies and generate their own quotes, giving them some extra independence and confidence in the process.  

On the business side, group health insurance quoting is also made simple, with tailored solutions that meet the specific needs of employers and their teams. Health insurance automation software for the quoting process has become a must in a market as dynamic as insurance.  

It accelerates the sales cycle through automation, reinforces client trust through personalization, and keeps insurance professionals highly productive through thorough process optimization. By delivering quick, customized, and accurate insurance quotes, this technology sets the stage for stronger client relationships and higher metrics in the insurance field.

Types of quoting software

The following info may already be known to you, but we want to discuss the basics first. Generally, the process of insurance quotes is based on the idea of quotes. A regular quote refers to estimated rates delivered by a potential insurance system. Service providers promote their offers via different channels, including insurance brokers that act as intermediaries and aggregators.

With top-quality health insurance quoting software, clients can compare quotes from carriers and purchase policies directly. Insurance agents get commissions, respectively. Installing a reliable and efficient quoting app can attract and retain more users. These tools are suitable for different programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.

Let’s look at major software differences based on the development approaches, features, tech basements, and enrollment periods.

Off-the-shelf applications

The first big category includes all the prepackaged apps. These programs are always similar regardless of the client or specific demands because vendors follow the «Create Once, Sell Everywhere» principle. Usually, development companies utilize best practices for the insurance industry, e.g., implementing the most demanded features like quote catalogs or comparison tables. Further, vendors deliver the exact copies to different customers.

Commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) has a quick time-to-market, relatively low initial costs, and the most successful functional modules. However, it lacks competitive advantage, customization features, and high profitability because developers often list extra services for extra costs. Be ready to pay more for further upgrades and maintenance. Reengineering and data migration also will cost more.

If you want to get a more customized solution, check out our custom agency management systems for insurance.

Custom applications

On the contrary, custom or bespoke tools are all about uniqueness. Dedicated development teams create each tool from scratch and consider each and every wish of a client. Hence, you are free to list extremely diverse requirements and be sure that the tech partner will review them. The chosen company will deploy all the desired features if it has enough skills and capabilities. With custom small group health insurance quoting software, you aren’t limited at all.

The advantages are apparent. Custom devs can create everything regardless of the complexity and the company’s goals. You will obtain a unique program unavailable to other insurance brokers. With custom applications, avoiding redundant features and extra expenses is simple because the software includes only the required modules. Moreover, you can specify what services you will need later (support, training, etc.) and pay for everything at once.

By dealing with dedicated teams, you can get not only quoting apps but also accounting software for insurance brokers.

Other differences

Diving into tech stuff, we also want to reveal more quoting software types. They depend on several features:

• Compliance with regulations. You want to be sure that the chosen software meets the main requirements of local and international regulators. The best example is the ACA, which is active now but can be changed and/or replaced with other official documents later.
• Deployment type. Digital apps can be hosted on your server or in the cloud. The first type requires enough free space and resources to maintain the software in-house. Instead, cloud tools provide online access without extra expenses.
• Enrollment period. If the local market has different enrollment time boundaries, you want to offer clients the most diverse options. Ensure the software allows clients to apply for quotes during open and special enrollment periods.
• A number of carriers. Apps can list quotes from only one affiliate carrier or compare offers from several companies. As a rule, a multi-carrier system is more engaging for regular clients. Surely, it should have an online enrollment option.
• Other functional modules. Depending on your needs and business goals, you can turn a simple quoting software into a powerful CRM platform, for example. Custom developers can easily add the demanded modules.

As you see, there are a lot of options. Usually, vendors of prepackaged solutions don’t leave space for customization. This means they can offer only cloud-based single-carrier tools with limited enrollment periods and without extra services. Opt for this type if you think that it fits your business objectives. Still, we suggest consulting with custom teams that can design any program and, respectively, boost the software’s efficiency.

Need a fully customized solution?
Consider custom insurance policy management software.

Defining the goals of the quoting software

As long as we consider bespoke solutions the best ones for insurers and their clients, it’ll be relevant to review the development process of custom apps. Our experts know the topic perfectly because of numerous insurance solutions that have been delivered, e.g., BenefitNet and FSA.

First and foremost, it’s necessary to understand the problems and challenges of this industry. Why do clients need quotes? What features in catalogs do they want? How can insurance brokers benefit from these products? Which indicators are the most important? Based on our experience, we distinguished two key features of any health insurance quoting software:

1. For customers. Deliver quotes with valuable info before asking for personal data.
2. For agents. Convert as many visitors as possible to turn them into leads.

Many existing solutions require users to fill out lengthy forms with different questions. They ask for personal details before providing real value. Respectively, most site visitors don’t access quotes because of the long and complicated registration process. Agents and brokers lose potential customers while people don’t get their needs.

Our vision is centered around usefulness for both parties. A health insurance platform should be the simplest starting touchpoint in the long marketing cycle. It should attract as many prospects as possible. To reach this result, we try to create user-friendly but informative solutions that deliver relevant data.

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Benefits of custom health insurance quoting software 

Built in line with an insurance provider’s philosophy and customer experience goals, custom health insurance quoting software can benefit its users on all sides.  

Boosted conversion rates 

Individual health insurance quoting software is tailored to provide a smooth, productive user experience, helping insurance agents convert more website visitors into leads. With a simpler quoting process and easily available quote generation, insurance clients don’t have to go the extra mile to complete quote requests, which brings higher conversion rates. 

Better lead generation 

Custom software syncs up the entire process of capturing client information and delivering accurate insurance quotes, enabling agents to gather more qualified leads. A well-designed system allows agents to access detailed client data, making future follow-ups and sales efforts more impactful and personalized. 

More revenue 

With more leads coming in, more potential clients interested, and higher conversion rates, agents and affiliate insurance carriers are looking at a significant boost in revenue. The ability to respond quickly and accurately to quote requests only reinforces trust and is a bonus when securing new clients. 

Accurate quote comparisons 

On the flip side, individualized software’s ability to deliver detailed comparisons of best-fitting health insurance plans is a major benefit for insurance clients. This feature boosts the transparency of service and makes customer experience smoother, with potential clients easily finding plans that are perfect for their needs and budgets. 

Simpler life for agents and carriers 

Data entry, quote calculations, and plan comparisons are all effort-, time-, and nerve-consuming tasks that can be automated via tailored software. Insurance agents and carriers should focus on building relationships and closing deals, while smart software handles routine errors, expensive downtime, and senseless actions. 

The process of creation and implementation of custom apps

In a nutshell, the development process includes the following stages:

1. Consultation. Talk with devs, agree on wishes and capabilities, check the required skills, get market insights and recommendations, and discuss terms and conditions.
2. Planning. Continue communicating with analysts and developers to get the final software plan with all the required features, potential changes, and long-term upgrades.
3. Designing. Wait until the team makes prototypes and/or an MVP. Deliver a final portion of feedback and, if everything is OK, proceed to the development itself.
4. Creation. Review tasks and results regularly to provide timely feedback to devs, ask for necessary changes, and try the finished functions with your team.
5. Testing. Ensure everything works correctly by cooperating with dedicated QA engineers, finding bugs, and asking partners to fix them.
6. Implementation. Prepare your software and your employees for new apps and new processes, train the team, migrate the data, and launch the software.
7. Support. Prolong your cooperation with developers to get regular tech maintenance and user support, install new updates, and re-engineer outdated modules.

Custom developers handle all these steps. Moreover, you can get the final price of the entire process beforehand to see how much everything will cost. Compared to premade solutions, custom software doesn’t feature extra hidden expenses after the launch.

If you’re considering cooperation with external firms, learn more about healthcare software development.

Small-group health insurance quoting software benefits

Now, let’s take some time to talk about the potential advantages of the reviewed applications. In the previous parts, we briefly covered this question. You may know that professional quoting solutions allow insurance agents to convert more website visitors, get more leads, and, respectively, increase revenue. Affiliate insurance carriers also get the same benefit. Simultaneously, clients receive an accurate comparison of relevant quotes.

But what about other advantages? Depending on your tasks and objectives, they can be as follows:

• Client details adjustments. Change quotes, proposals, and other variables for each client in real time. It’s easy to personalize offerings for different site visitors.
• Compatibility with various devices. Access the quoting software from PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets without issues.
• Integrated forms. Get enrollments and proposals at your fingertips. Find the forms in a single catalog, customize them, and deliver them to leads directly.
• Multi-carrier quoting. Integrate offerings from several insurance carriers to make the catalog and quote comparison more diverse.
• No paperwork. Get rid of human errors and redundant papers with digital-only solutions. They handle all customer cycle stages.
• Quick proposal builder. Create simple, informative, and personalized proposals with branded design. Send them to clients that explore your site.

Don’t forget that customer applications can include more features and benefits. It all depends on your requirements and budget.

Unique solutions for insurers we provide

We offer a family of ready-made software products called Vitaminise: Mobile App, Chatbot, Web Portal, Embedded Insurance Widget, DWH and Data Analytics. All these solutions are built to automate insurance processes, decrease the cost of claims, improve customer loyalty, and increase customer loyalty. Here’s short information about our Vitaminise software products:

1. Vitaminise Mobile App for health insurance companies is a native mobile app with features allowing users to buy policies online, report claims, schedule appointments with doctors, get instant telemedicine services, upload documents, and track statuses. The app can be integrated with core insurance platforms, payment gateways, and open data portals. ​
2. Vitaminise Chatbot is an LLM-powered conversational solution that understands context, recognizes voice and written messages, and ensures personalized customer experience. It allows users to purchase a policy and file a claim by uploading the needed data and files (photos and videos). 
3. Vitaminise Web Portal is a starting point for policyholders to communicate directly with an insurer online. It provides functionality for policy comparison, quoting, purchasing, claim reporting, and claim status tracking. The portal can be customized and integrated with a core insurance platform and open data portals. ​
4. Vitaminise Embedded Insurance Widget integrates insurance products directly into third-party platforms, allowing users to purchase coverage without leaving the site. This digital tool utilizes API technology to provide real-time access to insurance offerings, enhancing the purchasing experience. It features a user-friendly interface that guides users through the insurance buying process, including quote generation, policy selection, and payment processing. ​
5. Vitaminise DWH centralizes data from various systems, enabling the ETL process (Extract, Transform, Load) to standardize and load data for analysis.​ It supports OLAP for analyzing data by dimensions like policy types and claims frequency and Data Marts for focused areas such as underwriting or claims management, while Data Lakes handles unstructured data. The warehouse stores historical data for trend analysis and integrates real-time data processing for up-to-date insights, such as fraud detection. By providing a Single Source of Truth (SSOT), it ensures consistent reporting and decision-making across the organization. In contrast, analytics and reporting tools offer actionable insights for underwriting, claims, and customer management. ​

The bottom line

Health insurance quoting software is a viable choice for any insurance company or agency. Although a lot of carriers offer their native quoting tools, you want to get a personalized system that will be able to compare rates of different providers and feature enough space for further customization and upgrading.

Our company provides all-in-one development of custom insurance programs. We handle tasks of any difficulty and can implement different functional tools into your quoting product. If needed, we can also design more complicated applications, such as CRM or ERP insurance platforms.

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