Converting ACA Leads to Enrolled Clients: A CRM Workflow
How an ACA lead moves from first contact to an enrolled, commission-ready policy inside your CRM during Open Enrollment, stage by stage.
An ACA lead becomes an enrolled, commission-ready client through five handoffs: capture, quote, plan selection, enrollment, and policy confirmation. The ACA lead to client conversion process goes faster, and loses fewer people along the way, when each of those handoffs happens inside the same CRM record instead of across a dialer, a separate quoting tool, and a spreadsheet. Open Enrollment for 2027 coverage runs November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027 , with December 15 as the deadline to enroll or change plans for coverage starting January 1 — so the window to work a lead well is short, and it is already open. Open Enrollment 2027, at a glance On HealthCare.gov, Open Enrollment for 2027 Marketplace coverage runs from November 1, 2026 to January 15, 2027 . Enroll or change plans by December 15, 2026 and coverage starts January 1, 2027; enroll between December 16 and January 15 and coverage starts February 1, 2027 instead — both dates confirmed on the HealthCare.gov dates and deadlines page and the CMS key dates fact sheet . Some state-based Marketplaces run their own calendar, so confirm the end date for any state exchange your clients use before you build a campaign around it. After January 15, enrollment is limited to people with a qualifying life event under a Special Enrollment Period. The ACA lead-to-client conversion process, stage by stage The mechanics below describe how AgencyView moves a contact through each stage. The point isn't the software — it's that an agent working a hundred leads during OEP needs every one of these steps to happen the same way, every time, without depending on anyone's memory. Stage 1: Capture the lead and start the clock Every ACA lead should land as a contact the moment it arrives, not after someone gets around to typing it in. Speed matters here more than almost anywhere else in insurance sales — a lead contacted within minutes converts at a meaningfully higher rate than one contacted hours later. See Speed to Lead for Insurance Agencies for how to set that up end to end. During OEP specifically, build in a second track for leads you can't reach immediately: same-day, next-day, then every few days through mid-December, then weekly after that. A lead who goes quiet in November is often still a lead in January. Stage 2: Qualify and quote Once you have the household on the phone, quoting happens from the contact record. AgencyView's HealthSherpa integration pulls Marketplace plans for the household directly from the client's record, and a toggle lets the agent shop the plan on-exchange or off-exchange for the same household — HealthSherpa's response determines which path a given plan supports. Add other household members as applicants straight from the contact's linked household members, so the quote reflects the real household instead of one person's income and ages. Stage 3: Selecting a plan sets the rest of the record in motion This is the step that most lead-to-client workflows lose track of, because it's where the paperwork starts and the CRM record tends to fall behind it. In AgencyView, selecting a plan for the household automatically creates a pending policy on the contact with a temporary policy number, and sets a follow-up task five days after the plan's effective date as a reminder to come back and enter the carrier-issued policy number once it arrives. Any household members added as applicants are linked to that policy record the same way, so the policy shows the real household from the moment it's created rather than needing to be rebuilt later. Stage 4: Hand off to enrollment Selecting a plan doesn't finish the application — HealthSherpa does. AgencyView hands the enrollment off one of two ways: agent-assisted, where the agent continues the enrollment on HealthSherpa with the applicant already loaded, or self-service, where the client gets a link with the plan pre-selected and completes the enrollment themselves. Either way, the pending policy and its follow-up task are already sitting on the contact record, so the lead isn't "lost" between the quote and the finished application — it's a pending policy waiting on a number. Stage 5: Close the loop When the carrier-issued policy number comes back from HealthSherpa or the exchange, that's what the five-day follow-up task is for: swap the temporary number for the real one and confirm the policy's status. This is also the point where the client stops being a "lead" in any meaningful sense — they're an enrolled policyholder, and whatever retention or cross-sell process you run for existing clients should pick them up from here. Why this breaks down when it lives in three different tools The usual failure mode isn't any single step — it's the handoffs between tools. A lead comes in through a landing page or a lead vendor, gets dialed from a separate power dialer, gets quoted in a browser tab that has no idea who the contact is, and the enrollment finishes in a fourth system that doesn't tell anyone it finished. Multiply that by a hundred leads during a ten-week Open Enrollment window and some number of them simply fall through a seam between tools, not because anyone did anything wrong. Keeping the quote, the pending policy, and the enrollment status attached to the same contact record is less about convenience and more about having one place where "where did this lead end up" always has an answer. That's the same argument behind why every agent needs a CRM that isn't the carrier, the IMO, or the enrollment platform itself — the enrollment tool's job ends at the application; something else has to own the lead before it and the policy after it. What to do with leads who don't convert before January 15 Most ACA leads who don't enroll during Open Enrollment aren't dead — they're on hold until they have a qualifying life event, or until next November. Don't delete them. A lead who loses job-based coverage, has a baby, moves, or has a change in household income may qualify for a Special Enrollment Period at any point in the year, and a lead who simply didn't get to a decision by January 15 is exactly who you want to be first in line for next year's Open Enrollment. Keep them in a distinct stage so they don't get worked the same way as a brand-new lead, and keep the quote and any notes on the contact so the next conversation doesn't start from zero. If you're also managing renewals for clients already on your book, that's a related but separate workflow — see ACA Passive Re-Enrollment: A Client Follow-Up Workflow . A short checklist for working ACA leads through OEP New lead gets a contact record and a first outreach attempt the same day it arrives. Unreachable leads go on a cadence: same day, next day, every few days through December, weekly after. Quote the whole household, not just the primary applicant, using linked household members. Confirm on-exchange vs. off-exchange eligibility before presenting plan options. After plan selection, confirm the pending policy and its follow-up task exist on the contact. Track which leads are agent-assisted vs. self-service, so you know who still needs a hand finishing. When the carrier-issued policy number arrives, replace the temporary number and close the follow-up task. Leads who don't convert by January 15 move to a "watch for SEP" stage instead of being closed out. FAQ When is Open Enrollment for 2027 ACA coverage? November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027 on HealthCare.gov, per the HealthCare.gov dates and deadlines page . Enroll by December 15, 2026 for coverage starting January 1, 2027; enroll between December 16 and January 15 for coverage starting February 1, 2027. Can an agent still enroll an ACA lead after January 15? Only if the applicant qualifies for a Special Enrollment Period — typically triggered by a loss of coverage, a household change like marriage or a new dependent, a move, or an income change. Outside of a qualifying event, the next window is the following year's Open Enrollment. What is a…
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