Are Your Eyes Open Yet?

dandan

Guru
100+ Post Club
420
I realize this forum is only viewed by a minority of agents, and I know we have had many conversations about Part C plans.

But if you cannot see by now that we have been pawns then your blind!!!

I'm amazed at the agents waiting with baited breath on CMS and company guidelines, waiting to find what hoops they can or cannot jump through. "ridiculous"

Advantage plans have soured seniors against AGENTS, I know it was mostly because of the acts of many unethical greedy agents. Do you not think that the companies knew what they were doing??? Licensing thousands of new agents, agents that got in the business for the quick buck!

Companies have been speaking out of both sides of their mouths, preaching CMS rules and at the same time encouraging agents to promote and offer the plans at any cost!

Now that companies feel the general population understand or are at least familiar with advantage plans, we agents are really not needed.

We can cold call Med supps, we can mail lead cards, hold seminars all without CMS breathing down our necks!!

I suggest we ban together and market med supps, and battle the Pt c plans in full force!

Keep selling Advantage plans and you will sell yourself out of business!!!!!!!
 
We can cold call Med supps, we can mail lead cards, hold seminars all without CMS breathing down our necks!!

This is a curiosity question.

I don't work the senior market. Have no plans to get in the market.

Is there a problem in "dual" marketing? Soliciting for Med Supp and then offering a choice in MA and Med Supp?

Or is that another CMS no-no?
 
This is a curiosity question.

I don't work the senior market. Have no plans to get in the market.

Is there a problem in "dual" marketing? Soliciting for Med Supp and then offering a choice in MA and Med Supp?

Or is that another CMS no-no?


According to the rules yesterday, {they may have changed today}, if you spoke to prospective cleints about med sups or life insurance, etc., you could not mention MA, MAPD or PDP unless they initiated the conversation.

Even if you made an appoinment with them and were in the home, you could not mention those plans unless they brought it up. If they brought it up, you had to schedule a separate appointment, at least 48 hours later, to go over those plans. The prospective clients also have to sign a form stating that's how it went down.

As I said in another thread, those kinds of ridiculous rules will drive the decent agents out of that market leaving only the rule breakers. What a way to look out for seniors, huh?
 
You have to set an appt for the MA plan, according to the rules, whatever they may end up being.

This is much ado over nothing. There are some new rules, but if you only sell MA plans for a living you are going to have to look at going back to the things you sold prior to the MA boom, or you are fairly new in the business and you are going to look to adding new things to your product line offerings.

The nature of the enrollment periods surely has forced most professional full time agents to sell other lines after OEP. The folks in real distress are those who jumped on the MA product as a way to make a living and have no other bullets in their gun. For the most part, those are the recent additions to the business, and for the most part, they are the ones who caused the rules to swing as far as they have. Don't take offense if this doesn't apply ;)
 
Medicare Advantage seems like a piecemeal way to make money anyways. 400-600 an app (1 sold a total of 10 last year) There are many products out there with greater marketing and commission potential.
 
I had never been in sales until I got into this field. I have been taught and have heard time and time again that with your prospects / clients you should assess their concerns and needs. With that being said if I am at a health expo which is open to people of all ages, I feel that I should be able to offer something to almost everyone that visits my booth. Ind. health plans for those not on Medicare and for those that are Medicare recipients I would like to be able to offer Med supps and Med adv. Not everyone can afford med. supps. Luckily where I sale, med. adv. plans are good options.

I guess we could all go back and forth as to why or not something is good or bad, but I feel what it really boils down to is whether or not it is going to be the best product for your client. Not whether or not I think they are appropriate or if I feel like I am an ins. companies spawn.

I do not agree with CMS' rule in regards to only talking about one product. I like to explain and I try to help those on Medicare understand how everything works. I want them to know all of their options. I have a soft spot in my heart for the elderly and it is so sad how confused these people are. I have helped individuals that qualified for SNP's but their agent had convinced them they needed a med. supp, when in all reality the individual could have been on Medicaid and then on a SNP which would have cost them absolutely nothing. Then at the same time I have helped individuals who had the money to pay med supps. but their agent had convinced them that med. adv. was the way to go when in all actuality due to them needing monthly oxygen, etc, their OOP expenses in monthly premiums for a med. supp. would be less then the OOP max on the med. adv.

So my main concern, like most everyone here, is to let my client know all of their options and help them to make an informed, educated decision that will benefit them. If that means selling an advantage plan so be it, if it means me selling a med supp at a lower paycheck for me, so be it and if it means me telling the client that I have nothing to offer them that would be a benefit to them and me making no commission, then so be it!
 
I realize this forum is only viewed by a minority of agents, and I know we have had many conversations about Part C plans.

But if you cannot see by now that we have been pawns then your blind!!!

I'm amazed at the agents waiting with baited breath on CMS and company guidelines, waiting to find what hoops they can or cannot jump through. "ridiculous"

Advantage plans have soured seniors against AGENTS, I know it was mostly because of the acts of many unethical greedy agents. Do you not think that the companies knew what they were doing??? Licensing thousands of new agents, agents that got in the business for the quick buck!

Companies have been speaking out of both sides of their mouths, preaching CMS rules and at the same time encouraging agents to promote and offer the plans at any cost!

Now that companies feel the general population understand or are at least familiar with advantage plans, we agents are really not needed.

We can cold call Med supps, we can mail lead cards, hold seminars all without CMS breathing down our necks!!

I suggest we ban together and market med supps, and battle the Pt c plans in full force!

Keep selling Advantage plans and you will sell yourself out of business!!!!!!!

Yep, I couldn't agree more. I have never liked the PFFS plans from the first time I heard about them. I have only sold two and converted those two to a Med Supp several months later.

We are being used and abused by CMS, the companies and marketers. I didn't get in this business to be somebody's butt boy or have to check with "mommy or daddy" before I picked up the phone or had a conversation with someone.

There may be a place for HMO's and PPO's. When that was all that was available none of these problems existed.

Enter the PFFS plans with huge, unrealistic commissions and every Fuller Brush and encyclopedia salesman saw an opportunity to "get rich". All they brought with them was greed, not knowledge, not ethical practices, not concern for their clients but only a strong desire to do and/or say whatever it takes to get that all important commission check.

The public didn't think very much about insurance agents before all this crap started and now we are even several feet lower than whale shiet.

And, I'm holding back.
 
Yep, I couldn't agree more. I have never liked the PFFS plans from the first time I heard about them. I have only sold two and converted those two to a Med Supp several months later.

I do not like these plans either. I have never sold one and never will. I do not take the certification classes for these plans. I called to make sure that not taking the classes would not hold other commissions, etc. and they said it does not, so I never even take those tests. Where I am located I have only ran across one person that was enrolled in a PFFS, they are not really marketed I guess since the MAPDs and SNPs have great network and coverage.
 
:) All you have to do is go to one of those MA FMO or Mandatory Corporate meetings the insurance companies hold, look around at your peers, and you should see that the professional pedestal we put ourselves on has been lowered a couple of feet. If you think you are in good company at those meetings, I apologize for the insult. I can only imagine what kind of crowd attends the viatical and final settlement meetings. ;)
 
Back
Top