The hype about how private exchanges will revolutionize the successful delivery of employee benefits has quieted as the predicted “explosive growth” has slowed considerably. As I’ve long thought, instead of a revolution, a quiet evolutionary process is taking place.
As with many of the previous attempts to “reinvent an industry” – think WebVan and Pets.com – there is a growing recognition of the need to insert non-tech wisdom, sound processes and actual live human beings into the private exchange concept.