2026 Pennie Open Enrollment Period (OEP) Agent Readiness Guide

 License and Contracting 

  • Check the expiration date of your State-issued Broker’s License:
    • Brokers must have an active Accident and Health license issued by the PA Insurance Department.
  • Ensure all your carrier contracts are finalized with your GA prior to the beginning of OEP.
    • If you are not contracted with a specific carrier and you make a sale for a plan with that carrier on Pennie, you will not receive commissions for that plan.

 2026 Broker Certification

  • 2026 Pennie Certification Training
    • Don’t procrastinate. Complete the training as soon as possible after it is released from Pennie or at the very least one month prior to the cut-off date they provide when it is released.
    • Lessons learned from last year taught us that delays could be costly if your certification status isn’t current by the cut-off date Pennie provides as they will de-designate your clients if it is not completed.

 Reminders

  • Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Customer-Facing Materials:
    • Pennie wants to ensure enrollees are informed early and often about potential cost increases in 2026.
    • In late July/early August, Pennie will be sending a letter to customers receiving Advanced Premium Tax Credits.
      • This mailer explains that unless Congress acts, enhanced premium tax credits will be expiring at the end of the year.
    • Pennie created a webpage called pennie.com/costs to provide education and awareness on this topic.
  • The Pennie Open Enrollment Period (OEP) for the 2026 plan year will begin on November 1, 2025.
    • This is your opportunity to help clients:
      • Enroll in a new health plan
      • Renew or update current coverage.
      • Adjust financial information to ensure accurate savings.
  • Automated Renewal Process
    • It’s important to review all your client’s renewal plan options with them during OEP.
    • Pennie is mandated by federal law to perform an auto-renewal process which re-enrolls eligible customers into coverage for the 1st of the upcoming plan year.
      • To do this, Pennie takes a snapshot of all enrollments in the system in late September or early October.
    • If you or your client make changes to the current plan year application after Pennie has already taken the snapshot for automated renewal, the information you changed will not carry over to the new plan year.
      • You will need to go into the new plan year application after November 1st and edit it to reflect the correct information. For example, if you complete a change of address on your client’s application on October 15th you will also need to make sure you access the plan year 2026 application (once available) and make the change of address on it as well.
        • If the change is not completed on both the 2025 and 2026 applications, then it could cause issues with the client’s plan selections for 2026, especially if the move took the client to a new zip code.
    • Pennie does run a catch-up process closer to the December 15th deadline to account for changes made after the first snapshot, make sure you double check the new plan year application once it’s available to ensure the changes were captured, and if they weren’t then you need to correct the new plan year application.
    • Eligible customers enrolled in coverage at the time of the auto-renewal process do not need to submit a new application to maintain their coverage for the upcoming year.
    • The only situations in which a customer’s coverage would not be auto renewed are if:
      • Their consent for Pennie to compare their information to the Federal Data Services Hub are expired.
      • The determination performed prior to the auto-renewal concludes that they are Medicaid eligible.

 Pennie Application System Updates – For Your Awareness

  • Changes to Assister/Broker Access
    • Agents can no longer self-assign to households that are already working with another certified professional.
  • Maintaining Savings During Medicaid/CHIP Review
    • Consumers waiting for a Medicaid or CHIP eligibility decision can keep their financial savings active.
    • If approved, eligibility will be updated automatically.
    • If not approved, the system will retain or update their QHP and financial savings accordingly.
  • Automatic Birth Event Logging
    • Births are now automatically logged if a child is added within 60 days of birth.
    • The child’s DOB will be used as the SEP coverage start date.
    • Only the new child will be affected by the SEP.
    • Example: A family enrolled as of January 1, 2025, adds a newborn with a DOB of February 25, 2025, to their application on March 20, 2025. Since this is within the 60-day window, the birth is automatically logged and the coverage for the child begins on February 25, 2025.
  • Real-Time Account Activity Alerts
    • Consumers will now receive notifications when an Assister or Broker makes changes to their account.
  • Enrollment Dashboard for Assisters/Brokers
    • A new dashboard shows total enrollments over the last 7 days, 4 weeks, and 12 months.
  • Dental Coverage for Adults with Disabilities
    • Children with disabilities who turn 26 will no longer be automatically removed from dental plans during renewal.

 Resources

717-540-5690
500 Nationwide Drive
Harrisburg, PA 17110

© 1986-2025 URL, Inc. All Rights Reserved.