Insurers Must Guide Individual Market in 2014

"It's one thing to have a transparency tool deployed to market because an employer group requests it or requires it," he says. "It's another thing to have the consumers decide whether or not they're going to use it or choose you for your transparency tool. I think they [payers] realize the game has changed and the requirements for these tools and information have gone up, because it's really about the individual consumer now."

While the PPACA puts new wrinkles into the already complex government regulations insurers have to deal with, they are in the best spot to help consumers understand what's available.

The question for each insurer is whether they are ready to capitalize on consumers' shallow grasp of what healthcare reform means for them personally? Stephan says it's a major transformation.

Insurers are "going to now start to worry about this holy grail of healthcare around consumer engagement," he says, "because the behaviors of these consumers, once they have them as members, are pretty different from the behaviors of their current population right now."