Service Areas

Export service area datasets through Ideon's API

Creating a bulk export with a type of service_areas generates a file containing the service areas, defining plan availability by zip-county, that are associated with the plans that are available to the user. In this file, each JSON Line represents a unique zip-county and the service areas that include it.

The service areas included in an export are based on the plans that are available based on the request filters and the permissions of the API key making the request. The service areas for all plans included in this resultant set will be included in the export. The following request will generate a file with all service areas that are associated to plans that are available for quoting in the given filters.year.

POST /bulk_exports

{ 
    "type": "service_areas",
    "filters": {
        "year": 2026
    }
}

The JSONL service area export file is structured by zip-county, defined by zip_code and fips_code. For each unique zip-county, a list of the service_area_ids is included, detailing the service areas which include the zip-county. These IDs can be joined the service_area_id key for each plan in the Plans export file.

Sample Service Area JSON Line

{
    "service_area_ids": [
        "12345-2026-NY001-individual"
    ],
    "zip_code": "12345",
    "fips_code": "56789"
}

Utilizing Service Areas

The service area exports allows users to cache data to support plan availability visibility prior to quoting. This is an optional process that is not required to be able to quote plans. If service area exports are used, then it is recommended to follow the same caching process that is recommend for plans exports.

Filtered Exports

When filtering service area exports, it is important to note that complete service areas are always returned. The filters will act by first identifying plans available given the filter criteria and the user's permissioned access. The complete service areas associated to those plans will be exported. This is a common scenario with ancillary plans that are available nationally. If a service area export is created for New York service areas, only service areas associated to plans available in New York will be returned. However, if those plans are available nationally, the service area export will include the national zip-counties associated to those service areas. The export will not be additionally filtered to only New York zip-counties.

Carrier API Quoted Plans

Ideon supports real-time quoting integrations to carriers for rating in some markets. Plans that are quoted in this way can be identified through the quoted_via_carrier_api boolean in the plan benefit data. Since these plans are quoted by the carrier's API, there can be instances where a zip-county shows in the service area but is not considered available when quoting. These scenarios are very rare, but can occur for carriers that do not support detailed service area definitions outside of their quoting endpoint.