New Benefitfocus Program Advances Consumer-Driven Health Care for Insurance Carriers

CHARLESTON, S.C., Feb. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), a leading provider of cloud-based benefits management software, today announced its Certified Carrier Program. The program opens an additional sales channel for insurance carriers to offer life, disability and other benefits products to employers with more than 50 employees on BENEFITFOCUS® Platform. The Hartford, a leading group disability and voluntary insurance provider, is the first carrier to sign on to the program.

Through the cloud-based Benefitfocus Platform and the recently announced ACORD Member Enrollment Standard (formerly Benefitfocus iMax®), consumers will now have the ability to compare health insurance along with other employee benefits offerings, providing greater choice within an efficient multi-benefit marketplace.

"Consumers demand the same online experiences in health care insurance and benefits that they've come to expect from popular online retailers," said Benefitfocus CEO Shawn Jenkins. "We're pleased to welcome The Hartford and our long-standing health insurance partners to help us deliver a seamless, simplified experience for all involved."

By automating on the Benefitfocus Platform, certified carrier partners can now distribute products across a very large book of business, while participating in an enhanced consumer experience. Employers on the Benefitfocus Platform will have access to The Hartford's Employee Choice Benefits^SM suite of voluntary products including life, short- and long-term disability, accident, critical illness, accidental death & dismemberment insurance and hospital indemnity.

"The Benefitfocus Platform offers employers and consumers a tailored suite of products as they seek to protect their health and financial well-being," said Mike Fish, head of Group Benefits product and strategy at The Hartford. "As we continually invest in voluntary capabilities, we are pleased to be the first Certified Carrier Partner in the new program and are confident that this partnership will help us expand our reach and grow our business."

Carriers interested in the Certified Carrier Program can contact their Benefitfocus account executive.

About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ: BNFT) provides a leading cloud-based benefits management platform that simplifies how organizations and individuals shop for, enroll in, manage and exchange benefits.  Every day leading employers, insurance companies and the consumers they serve rely on our platform to manage, scale and exchange benefits data seamlessly. In an increasingly complex benefits landscape, we bring order to chaos so our clients and their employees have access to better information, make better decisions and lead better lives. Learn more at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; changes in government regulations; the immature and volatile nature of the market for our products and services and other factors that could impact our anticipated growth; management of growth; fluctuations in our financial results; general economic risks; reliance on key personnel; our ability to compete effectively; our ability to maintain our culture and recruit and retain qualified personnel; privacy, security and other risks associated with our business; 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.cfm 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.