Are There More MA Agents Since 2009 or Less?

[wehotex]

In your opinion, have the CMS requirements led to less agents or more? I work in an area where the medical groups get very involved in marketing because of the financial nature of their contracts. So, it's hard to gauge. It does seem like a lot of agents crawl out of the woodwork during the AEP and then re-surface at the next AEP. A friend in Calif was commenting that more IFP (Indiv, Family plans) agents have gotten into the Medicare biz to capture their T65 business. It used to be that they didn't want to get involved with medicare advantage.
What's it like in your market?

 

[G.Gordon]

I see more, but blame the economy... it is Bush's fault.

Poor economy, no one really needs to "hire" an agent, they get licensed and they are "working". More low quality agents make up the new generation. Willing to screw over their own mother to make a sale.

 

[Norwayguy]

I see more, but blame the economy... it is Bush's fault.

Poor economy, no one really needs to "hire" an agent, they get licensed and they are "working". More low quality agents make up the new generation. Willing to screw over their own mother to make a sale.

I personally draw the line at screwing over my father and my inlaws...my mother is sacred

I see it as more people have moved in to the market and you would definatly find more people come out of the woodwork for AEP as it is such a big time for the MA market.

 

[BeeSelective]

I've been in MA, MAPD, PDP since the beginning. Probably make an exit this year.

If I said what I thought, I'd get in trouble.

 

[midwestbroker]

Medicare has been a growing market for agents since the modernization act.

The "boomers are coming" chant has been going on since then, and with a focused sales period (AEP) it is a prime market to recruit; "Work hard for 45 days and make $10,000."

Then they go back to their other lines of coverage and come back next year. Overtime they may be more involved in the senior market due to referrals and managing their book of Medicare business.

 

[jdeasy]

There's one less that I know of. Next month will be 4 years since I wrote an MA plan or PDP.

 

[eharriett]

Been in it since 2003 (back when they were called "Medicare + CHOICE", remember those?). Never cared much for them, always promoted supps, but MA is right for some people in some places.

I've noticed fewer independents like myself, but more aggressive captives, or independents that only work with one carrier in ma and PDP plans.

I remember in 06-08, things were so bad we had to carry around department of insurance complaint forms for clients. We didn't look to give those out, obviously, but we saw a lot -- A LOT -- of clients that were genuinely harmed by the sales tactics of some of these agents. Since the SOA laws came out, say what you want about the problems with them (and there sure are plenty), but it got a lot of people out of a business they really didn't understand and didn't seem to want to understand.

Competition is still here (and every lost sale is a learning expense for us, if the client is kind enough to tell us why we lost to someone else), but we've inadvertently gone from being one of I don't know how many insurance brokers to an insurance broker who specializes in working with people on Medicare-related insurance issues.