CMS Screws Agents

[walleyeb1]

Yes and half of that if they are already in a MA plan looking for a better one. You only get the renwal commission in that case. I'm goin back to med supps. As a matter of fact thats all you get on a new MA client until cms oks the company to pay you the other half. I'm going to trust them to follow up on this and get it right. I've been trying to help a client get disenrolled for six months now it took one month for her husband. But, her's somehow got messed up. CMS is blaming the plan the plan is blaming CMS.

 

[GreenSky]

Its the average of 06 and 07 plus any bonuses that may have been paid plus inflation.

If you count 07 Street plus Bonus for Secure Horizons your looking at $600.

In 06 Pacificare paid $250 (Thats before S Horizons bought them out)
So if you add them you get the total of $850... divide that by 2 and add for inflation and the renewals should be a little more than $200.

I could be wrong, but that is how I am seeing things.

Yes, you are wrong.

Rick

 

[theinuranceguy]

Well, we will see.

 

[retread]

As I see it, the point where we are getting the shaft, is that in 2006 carriers were just entering this new 2003 MMA change, and were being cautious about what commissions they could afford because they didn't know how these plans would pay out. With the success of 2006, they upped the ante in 2007. In 2008, they had a better idea of what they could afford to pay commissions, and enrollments were beginning to drop off. Now they needed to recruit more agents and needed to encourage enlisted agents to work a little harder, so commissions became a bidding war. When this happened, CMS got wind of it and instead of just tweaking carriers, did the usual government thing... fix it with a hammer.

They KNOW that explaining MA plans to anyone for the first time takes a lot of time. THEY WROTE THE RULES. You MUST say this, you MUST say that, etc. etc. In addition to taking the time at the sales presentation, we have a lot of uncompensated time studying all those dizzy rules (at least some of us do). Also take into account the time required to develop marketing strategy, implementing a marketing plan, (not to mention the cost), and time traveling to/from appointments (including dead ends), and you have a lot more than just an hour or two per application to consider in reaching a compensation/hr in fairness to the agent. NO... they simply ignore how much time we put in and go for the %-age paid 4 years ago as if it was adequate, to come up with a "fair market value" of our time.

The big question is: how much are they capitating the carriers? Give us a %-age of that!

 

[GreenSky]

The big question is: how much are they capitating the carriers? Give us a %-age of that!

We know what the capitation rate is by county and state. It's not a secret and starts at about $9,000 per year.

So don't worry, we're getting a percentage. About 1-2%.

Rick

 

[stormtracker]

This is getting like P&C. Work your ass off quoting and taking pictures, servicing, etc... for $75.

 

[theinuranceguy]

Just got off the phone with an FMO friend of mine, they are thinking around $200-$250 for the renewal.

Their captive team was getting paid that with "free" preset appointments last year. they are thinking this will be around $75 this year. YIKES!

Releases this year for capitive agents is going to be a nightmare.

 

[Frank Stastny]

I think Non Golfing Agent made an excellent comment a few posts back.

Regarding renewals he said "You're assuming the plan you have them in will be competitive in 3 years".

I think that sums up the whole discussion about renewals.

Med Supp policies use to remain competitive for several years. I have one company that has remained "competitive", in spite of a few premium increases for the last eight years. With their increase this year they have gone "over the top" and are really a very big player anymore.

I don't see anything that even remotely indicates that any of the current MA plans will still be the best one for an agent's clients even next year let alone three years from now.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

[MedSuppPro]

I think we need to differentiate the Medicare plans from true insurance plans, that for the most part have an endless renewal stream (i.e 10%). These plans have no 6 week OEP mad dash with two major holidays.

Compare this to a government program (Part C & D) that is not insurance. It defies the basic laws of insurance. We who work for Part C and Part D plans are certified according to government standards and are required to play by the employee handbook rules. We are seasonal governmental contracted employees. We deserve an honest wage for our services.

We are comparing apples with oranges. Lets get real!!!

 

[G.Gordon]

Another line of thought...

With the passage of HR6331, the bitching congress did all year about the overpayment of private medicare plans, and the financial wreck the mass enrollment of beneficiaries caused on Medicare's purse... anyone else see this as another sign that medicare doesn't want agents doing such a good job pushing these plans?

Sure MA has been around, will be around, but the expansion of coverage over the past few years has hurt the system... not helped.

Higher commissions = more applications.
Toughter rules and lower commissions = fewer

What say ye?