AEP: Dealing with existing BoB changes vs adding new clients

[Jim Wright]

I'm not sure who your upline is but I would say that Senior Market Sales has the best free technology. You can mass email all clients to do their updates for RX and Doctors on a secure server for AEP. You can also tag all of your clients with their existing plan and receive a report of any market disruption such as plan exits, and formulary changes across your entire book of business. i.e. if Lantus is removed from a formulary you can easily find every client in your book that takes Lantus. Not a commercial for them, but all of their technology is free which is helpful to your budget.

Tell me about their release policy...

 

[FMOadvisor]

I personally have never seen them block an immediate release but I do believe they honor carrier blackout periods and if your FMO makes you wait out the 14-90 days that some carriers enforce, then you would be stuck until January 1. I personally don't think it is ever a good idea to change uplines right before AEP. If you want to make a change do it January to March. No NMA or FMO can keep you in their downline past the carrier's automatic release policy. I think UHC is the longest at 90 days.

 

[tcianflone]

I'm not sure who your upline is but I would say that Senior Market Sales has the best free technology. You can mass email all clients to do their updates for RX and Doctors on a secure server for AEP. You can also tag all of your clients with their existing plan and receive a report of any market disruption such as plan exits, and formulary changes across your entire book of business. i.e. if Lantus is removed from a formulary you can easily find every client in your book that takes Lantus. Not a commercial for them, but all of their technology is free which is helpful to your budget.

I have access to something similar from CareFree agency. It's basically a branded portal that uses Sunfire as its back end. I have some of my clients loaded in there, but I'd be happier with a solution that is mine so that if I decide to change FMO/upline, my data stays with me. I've watched some of the SMS videos; they do look pretty good.

 

[GoPokes]

Tell me about their release policy...

They are a good outfit. There are quite a few good uplines, under the SMS umbrella, you may be able to get access to them now. You should ask your current upline(s) if they have any contracts through SMS.

You may not have to be direct to SMS, to get good upline service and SMS tools.

 

[rmhaire]

They are a good outfit. There are quite a few good uplines, under the SMS umbrella, you may be able to get access to them now. You should ask your current upline(s) if they have any contracts through SMS.

You may not have to be direct to SMS, to get good upline service and SMS tools.

But that wasn't his question. He asked about their release policy.

Pretty sure he already knows and his question wasn't really a question.

 

[GoPokes]

But that wasn't his question. He asked about their release policy.

Pretty sure he already knows and his question wasn't really a question.

I see now that I didnt explicitly answer the question, I apologize. In my experience, there has been no issue with releases from them.

 

[Jim Wright]

I personally have never seen them block an immediate release but I do believe they honor carrier blackout periods and if your FMO makes you wait out the 14-90 days that some carriers enforce, then you would be stuck until January 1. I personally don't think it is ever a good idea to change uplines right before AEP. If you want to make a change do it January to March. No NMA or FMO can keep you in their downline past the carrier's automatic release policy. I think UHC is the longest at 90 days.

They have agreements with a certain carrier that will not allow you to do a delayed release from them. The only way to get released is from them and they make that process as difficult as it could possibly be.

 

[InsuranceGuy29]

I've been in the Medicare business around 8 years now and have a decent size BoB. What I'm finding is that, as an independent agent working solo, my business is becoming limited by its own success. Meaning, the BoB has become large enough that I have all I can do to manage changes for my existing clients vs taking on new clients. This AEP is going to be so disruptive that I'll have all I can do to move my existing clients to plans they can live with that I'm not really looking forward to it at all. It's just going to be a bunch of busy work to keep my same BoB. The first five or six years it was not like that at all. I've taken steps to use technology as much as possible to minimize the effort it takes to manage my clients and am considering possibly investing in CRM after this AEP. Have any of you experienced this? Any practical pointers appreciated.

I feel this. When you're building up (first 5-6 years) AEP is a time to try and add a lot of business. After you build up and have some good referral pipelines, you're gonna be getting new clients left and right all year. AEP then just becomes a time of maintenance of your book of business, as you'll be writing enough policies throughout the year anyway.

I've been fortunate, and am fortunate, to live in a big metropolitan area. The insurance companies don't like changing things much and disrupting business, because if they do so, they stand to lose a LOT of business (there's a lot of heavy competition), but I feel for agents in some areas of the country where big changes are more frequent. AEP has to be a damn nightmare.

I also used to try and meet with as many clients as possible during AEP, and I have made it a point to stop doing that for my own sanity. The carriers now send them all notices about any minor changes, and they know if they need me, I'm just a text or call away. Life has been so much more peaceful since this.

In my observation, PPO's have been a huge help in this, as even if a doctor leaves a network, it's not a monumental thing, like it was when only HMO's existed. You'd have to meet with them and find them another plan. Now it's just another 15% copay, as opposed to moving to an entirely new plan.