A dying agents warning ‼️

[wyche1]

OK I have a unique situation. I own a brick and mortar Medicare agency in my home town that my wife ran for years. She made every client come in and meet with her face to face in the office. That attracted a higher income demo than most Medicare agents work with.

She sold 85% Med sups to 15% Advantage plans.

This year I am helping out in the office more and I am trying to cross some of them over to Advantage plans that have been calling in with their rate increases. (Med sup people always think they can only change during AEP no matter how many times you explain it to them.)

Hardly any of them will consider Advantage. I have one today that will change over. But it’s hard to get people on Original Medicare to even consider it. They all have a “friend” on one of those Advantage plans with a horrible experience.

I’m a big believer in describing both and just going with what they choose. But I can tell you, people with a bit more money who are the type that want to come to an office rather than enroll over the phone or have an agent come to their home (and there is a huge number of these people who prefer the office) do tend to favor Original Medicare.

I'm in a similar situation as you. My issues with MAPD Plans:
I show both Med Supp & MAPD. Med Supp is about 82% of my book of about 600 Medicare clients (would be more but they keep dying). I would happily sell MAPD if the plans worked better in my area. Our local hospital was In-Network in 2016 & 2017 with only BCBS, BCBS bailed on my county in 2018 so our regional hospital was not In-Network with any MAPD plan in 2018. This was a QE which afforded clients a SEP back to Medicare+PDP+MED SUPP. In 2019 the hospital contracted with Humana, happy days, people again had options. The hospital left Humana 1/1/23 and hammered them in a letter to all MAPD patients stating due to denials, slow pay, constant appeals, etc. they were done with all MA plans. Humana still offered the same plans in my county so No QE, No SEP. Humana's $0 Premium plan Out of Network (OON) benefit had a co-insurance of 40% on almost everything except hospital & Dr visits which just have higher copays. NO ONE can have an outpatient surgery, MRI, PT, OT, etc. without paying 40% of the bill, however they can drive 70 miles and be in-network for that colonoscopy or knee scope, etc. I had 100+ clients with them, only about 30 of them could medically qualify and afford to roll to Medicare+Med Supp+PDP. 80 of them are stuck on a MAPD with a TERRIBLE OON benefit! The local hospital owns 93% of the doctors in my area and the outpatient surgery center, you have to leave town if you want In-Network benefits. Every Med Supp client knows at least one person who got screwed over in this fiasco. Of course they blame Humana and those "terrible Advantage plans" not the hospital that left the network.

Thankfully as of 1/1/25 our hospital is back In-Network with BCBS! Only BCBS & Humana offer MA plans in my county next year, only BCBS is In-Network. I'm happy to sell them (wrote one today) but I make sure the client understands it may be a forever choice they are making.

I have no issue with MA plans IF you are in an area with a lot of carriers to choose from and a lot of In-Network providers.

MA carriers are beholden to shareholders, Original Medicare is beholden to taxpayers. MA carriers need to make a profit to survive, Medicare/government can print money to survive.

If they bribe you to sell it and they bribe the client to enroll in it, is it really in the client's best interest?

Brick and mortar, in office appointments, 40 year veteran 3rd generation agent, my kid finally saw the light last year and quit his job as an engineer at Boeing moved back to his hometown and become the 4th generation agent.

Greatest job in the world!

 

[Midlevel]

This is not true. Good lord.

You’re still in the Medicare program. You still have all the rights and protections that come along with having Medicare, but you will access your benefits through a private company with a Medicare contract. The plan has a network and there are rules. It is managed care. Your doctor may need to get permission before fixing you certain care.

That’s not scary enough though so need to reword it. I have no idea why so many agents are against MA plans. I understand the ones who also do financial planning and P&C bc they don’t want to bother with all the training. But the ones who call themselves Medicare agents make no sense to me, wouldn’t you want to show the clients all their options? The only way to be 100% Med Sups is to try to scare people from taking anything else. Not sure why an agent would do that but to each their own I guess.

 

[rmhaire]

I have no idea why so many agents are against MA plans.

I've lost count of the conversations you and I have had on this over the last few years. But what the hell, what's one more.

It's obvious you prefer MA and it's obvious that I prefer OM. And we're both certified for both. So what's the difference?

One is that I'm on medicare. You're not. I prefer making my own decisions. Don't know about you.

Comparing the two is not scare tactics. Neither is stating the pros and cons of both. And both have pros as well as cons.

Our clients are grown-ass adults. Let them decide.

And BTW. Since you like golf. I'll play you for $100 a hole if you give me two Gotchas.

 

[Midlevel]

I've lost count of the conversations you and I have had on this over the last few years. But what the hell, what's one more.

It's obvious you prefer MA and it's obvious that I prefer OM. And we're both certified for both. So what's the difference?

One is that I'm on medicare. You're not. I prefer making my own decisions. Don't know about you.

Comparing the two is not scare tactics. Neither is stating the pros and cons of both. And both have pros as well as cons.

Our clients are grown-ass adults. Let them decide.

And BTW. Since you like golf. I'll play you for $100 a hole if you give me two Gotchas.

I would still lose, dropped 1200.00 on new Taylor Made irons and they don’t work but they will not let me return them. lol

 

[rmhaire]

I would still lose, dropped 1200.00 on new Taylor Made irons and they don’t work but they will not let me return them. lol

Back in the 80's I was working on a coffee machine at the local MacGregor plant when someone behind me asked a question. I turned around and it was Jack. (When he owned MacGregor)

I should have made him the same offer on the two Gotchas. I could be going around today telling folks that I beat Jack Nicklaus.