1-800-MEDICARE Recommendations

[alldaytuesdays]

I know there's been a good amount of talk/consternation on this site about 1-800-MEDICARE. Here's my latest experience - can anyone relate? And what are your thoughts?

I'm following up with a Turning 65 Internet lead prospect that I spoke with about a week ago. They tell me that they got "20 phone calls" (probably wasnt that many - maybe 12-14), so they just called up 1-800-MEDICARE to see what they would say. The prospect claims the rep on the line told them the names of two companies (AARP and American Republic) and said she should "go with one of these because they are usually the best". So, now I call her, the prospect, this week and she says, predictably, I want either AARP or American Republic since Medicare told me those were best. The two are not in the ballpark for competitive rates for any plans in her zip code - Am Rep is miles away from the ballpark. So, now I am trying to educate her, although I could just sell her AARP, but I'm up against what "Medicare said". Plus, how many other people just hear that and do exactly what the rep says without even checking rates/plans elsewhere?

What's more, this is the third time in the last two weeks that someone has told me, under different circumstances, that 1-800-Medicare recommended AARP to them. Talk about in bed with the Fed. Gov't!

The last thing Medicare-eligibles need is Wanda in the Medicare call room making an uninformed insurance recommendation because AARP had a pretty commercial during the 6:30 news last night.

Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[Senior Benefit]

Sorry to say....YES. We are hearing reports of this from more than just a few of our brokers. From what I have been able to find out, the CMS rep can easily pull up the same information that the consumer can off of the data they enter into the medicare.gov website to get guidance on health plans available in their area. It almost sounds like the CMS rep is getting tired after naming off the first two companies that are listed in alphabetical order. AARP of course is a well known name...and likely recognized by the CMS rep that your prospect talked to. You might want to bring to your prospect's attention that there are other carriers out there that write Med Supps whose name does not begin with the letter "A". She might not have noticed that both companies shared the same first letter. I don't truly think that CMS is in bed with AARP (although you never know), but I think it is simply more of a person only mentioning the first couple of carriers on the list.

Good luck

Dave

 

[alldaytuesdays]

Reading down the list of available companies is great... I think the reps should do that.

In this situation though, the prospect says she named off the companies that she had gotten info/calls from, and the rep said out of those, she would go with AARP or American Republic.

 

[Professor Leads]

Another reason to contact these people when they are 67+ and replace that AARP $190 plan F with a $98 plan E.

 

[midwestbroker]

I tell them about this...

 

[Winter_123]

Reading down the list of available companies is great... I think the reps should do that.

In this situation though, the prospect says she named off the companies that she had gotten info/calls from, and the rep said out of those, she would go with AARP or American Republic.

You need an insurance license to be making recommendations about insurance plans and even with the license you must do a suitability analysis. Did she fully explain to caller that AARP has a three month waiting period for pre-x versus Mutual of Omaha which has not waiting period. Nevermind. Let the caller find that out on their own I guess.

How about medicare advantage? Will the medicare phone drone also tell me which medicare advantage plan she recommends for me in my area?

 

[insurance0707]

I was on the phone the other day with Medicare and a client. We were doing a 3 way call. The man that we were speaking with at Medicare told me he was an insurance agent also. He was with Anthem Blue Cross among other companies. I believe Medicare claims are handled by an insurance company. For example, in Michigan Medicare used to be run through Blue Cross of Mi, but now it's another company out of another state.

That's the first I've heard of Medicare recommending Med supps over the phone