Case Study: North Carolina State Health Plan achieves streamlined benefits administration, instant enrollment and $3.6M annual savings with Benefitfocus Benefitplace

Replacing Complexity with a Flexible Process and Partnership

The North Carolina State Health Plan, which administers benefits for roughly 497,000 active employees and 230,000 retirees across 400+ government entities, faced a paper-driven enrollment process that forced passive open enrollment and caused qualifying life-event changes to take up to three months. A new state tobacco attestation requirement made it clear they needed a fast, scalable solution to streamline compliance and serve a diverse workforce.

The Plan implemented Benefitfocus Benefitplace, moving nearly all groups onto a configurable, rules-based platform that integrated with 20+ carriers to eliminate paper, automate file transfers and speed processing. The unified enrollment experience improved member engagement (including a 20% rise in Dependent Care FSA participation), enabled automatic retiree enrollment, provided targeted communications and a Benefits Service Center, and uncovered 600 ineligible dependents—an estimated $3.6M in annual savings—while boosting administrative efficiency and compliance.

NC State Health Plan

Beth Horner

Director of Customer Experienceand Communications