In long-term care, post-acute, and skilled nursing facilities, open enrollment often feels like the main event. HR teams spend weeks preparing, vendors activate their platforms, and employees make high-stakes decisions under pressure.
But what happens when enrollment ends?
Too often, the support disappears, leaving HR teams and employees to navigate the rest of the year on their own.
In care environments with high turnover, steady new hires, and ongoing life changes, benefits administration doesn’t pause after open enrollment. It just becomes more complex.
That’s where Brian Patten & Associates steps in differently. Our model is designed not just for open enrollment, but for everything that follows. From new hire onboarding to ongoing benefits coaching and system-level support, BPA provides year-round service that strengthens workforce continuity and frees up internal resources.
Because great benefits don’t just need to be selected. They need to be explained, maintained, and accessible every day, not just once a year.
OE Is Only the Beginning
Most benefits vendors go quiet once enrollment closes. They’re built for the season, not for the reality of high-turnover, high-change care environments.
But healthcare doesn’t run on a seasonal schedule. People are hired weekly. Life events happen daily. And benefit questions don’t wait until next year.
If your HR team is constantly re-onboarding new hires, re-answering the same questions, or manually adjusting systems after the fact, you’re not scaling; you’re surviving on a cycle of catch-up.
BPA helps break that cycle.
What Happens After OE? More Than You Think.
In long-term care and post-acute settings, the end of open enrollment doesn’t mean the workload slows down. In many ways, it’s just the beginning. From onboarding new hires to managing mid-year changes, HR is pulled into a constant stream of benefit-related tasks, and most of them can’t wait.
- New hire onboarding: Weekly (sometimes daily), across multi-site networks
- Life event adjustments: Marriage, divorce, new dependents, loss of outside coverage
- Manual paperwork: Enrollment forms, payroll adjustments, deduction corrections
- Regulatory tracking: ACA, COBRA, and dependent verification responsibilities
- Ongoing employee confusion: Repeated questions from staff about coverage and deadlines
These aren’t one-off disruptions; they’re part of the daily rhythm in senior care. And without systems and support that extend beyond enrollment season, organizations feel it. HR teams burn out, employees feel overlooked, and leadership loses visibility into the overall health of their workforce.
That’s where BPA operates differently.
We don’t disappear after enrollment ends. We stay engaged with the same level of responsiveness, clarity, and human support all year long.
Where BPA Stays Involved (And Why It Matters)
Our year-round model is designed specifically for the realities of healthcare operations. We continue to support your team, employees, and HR alike, well after the enrollment window closes.
Here’s how:
- New Hire Enrollment
Every new employee receives the same personalized support as those hired during OE. Our licensed Benefit Coaches walk them through options, answer questions, and help ensure a confident start, whether they’re working remotely, on-site, or overnight.
- Life Event Changes
When staff experience life changes, a birth, marriage, divorce, or coverage loss, we help guide them through the next steps. BPA handles mid-year adjustments with clear communication, timeline tracking, and documentation support, so nothing falls through the cracks.
- On-Demand Benefit Coaching
Our U.S.-based Benefit Coaches are available year-round to answer questions and help employees understand and use their coverage, without always involving HR. That means fewer escalations and more peace of mind.
- Audit-Ready Support Tools
We provide the tools and workflows your team needs to stay organized, whether it’s ACA-related reporting, COBRA notifications, or dependent eligibility tracking. We don’t claim to “guarantee” compliance, but we help you stay prepared and proactive.
- Live Dashboards and Reporting
With built-in dashboards, your team has visibility into enrollment trends, participation, and common pain points. That means fewer surprises, cleaner handoffs between departments, and stronger decision-making at the leadership level.
Real Partnership, Year-Round: The Genesis Healthcare Example
Genesis Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest post-acute and rehabilitation providers, knows firsthand how year-round support changes the game.
In 2024, BPA didn’t just manage OE for Genesis’s 26,000+ employees across more than 250 care centers. We became their enrollment and advocacy partner for the long haul.
Here’s what that looked like in practice:
- New hires were enrolled year-round, with personalized support from our licensed Benefit Coaches
- Shift-based and part-time staff, often the hardest to reach, got consistent access to benefit education
- BPA took on the role of employee advocate, replacing their previous vendor with a higher-touch, more responsive service
- HR teams gained a go-to resource for mid-year questions, onboarding, and eligibility support
As Genesis’s VP of Corporate Human Resources shared:
“They have been an amazing asset for our HR teams and employees—not only through open enrollment, but throughout the year.”
That’s not just a seasonal engagement. That’s what real partnership looks like.
The Impact of Year-Round Benefits Support
When BPA stays engaged beyond OE, the long-term effects are tangible across the organization:
- Higher first-year retention: Employees feel supported from day one
- Lower compliance risk: Teams are better equipped to manage changing requirements and deadlines
- Stronger HR performance: Less time on rework means more time on people strategy
- Greater employee satisfaction: Staff know where to turn and feel taken care of
- Cleaner payroll and billing: Fewer errors, less friction, more trust
None of this is “extra.” It’s what’s required to run a stable, scalable care operation in today’s environment.
Enrollment Is a Moment. BPA Builds the Infrastructure.
Open enrollment is just one moment in the employee lifecycle. It’s what comes after, the follow-up, the coaching, the ongoing support, that shapes how your people experience benefits and how your organization performs.
At BPA, we’re not here to deliver a quick OE fix. We build infrastructure. We create workflows that last. And we support the people doing the work, day in, day out.
If your support ends when OE does, you’re not in a partnership. You’re in a transaction.
And in long-term care, your staff deserves better than that.