- 30,339
That's right, I forgot that she said a while back that her sister-in-law took her Med Supp from a Bankers Life agent.
Is this IEP Med Supp sale valid?
- Thread starter MrSockMonkey
- Start date
- 6,986
Hi, I am NOT an insurance agent in any area of insurance. I have no personal knowledge about when insurance carriers let you sell medicare products. I am going to make one comment about that in my post below, but it is a marketing assumption, not a statement of any facts of which I am personally aware.
As I've read through your posts, it seems like you may be struggling with getting a clear focus on each of all the moving parts. You have a transaction which involves 3 parties; the government, an insurance carrier and a medicare beneficiary. You have medical insurance described by two four letter words, Part and Plan. There is also a vocabulary term, IEP which presents two challenges. The first is understanding what the government means by "first time" when it uses IEP. The second is remembering that the term IEP has different technical details when used with Part than it does when used with Plan. (That one gets me tangled up all the time.)
I am a medicare beneficiary. (and I do not understand the specialized rules of Part C, medicare advantage, i've not included part C in the comments below.)
IEP stands for initial enrollment period. In relation to the parts of Medicare, Part A, Part B and Part D; it relates to the period of 7 months around my 65th birthday. It describes the period of time in which I was first ELIGIBLE to participate in the Medicare insurance program. It is very important to note that it may NOT describe the period of time in which I actually ENROLLED in the parts of Medicare (ie acquired and/or purchased medicare insurance coverage. In a most extreme case, it would be possible for a Medicare beneficiary to have 3 different dates on which they were first enrolled in Parts A, B and D; and to have all 3 of those dates falling outside of the beneficiary's IEP.
The government allows private insurance carriers to provide medicare beneficiaries health insurance plans to SUPPLEMENT the financial benefits provided by parts A and B of Medicare. The Medicare beneficiary has an open enrollment period to buy a supplement plan. CMS (When can I buy Medigap? | Medicare.gov) refers to it as open enrollment, others will use the term IEP(initial enrollment period). The IEP or Open Enrollment Period for a Medicare supplement PLAN is a different period of time than the IEP for PARTS A, B and D of Medicare. It is tied to the Medicare beneficiary's effective date for Part B. And again, please keep in mind the distinction between being ELIGIBLE to enroll and actually ENROLLING.
In my case, I did not take out Medicare Part B until 7 years after my Medicare IEP, so my Medicare supplement IEP or Open Enrollment Period started 7 years after my Medicare IEP.
In short, both the 7 month and the 6 month periods of time which you cited are valid enrollment periods, they just anchor in different sets of facts. One is an enrollment period in which one is eligible for the PARTS of Medicare, the other is an enrollment period in which one is eligible for a Medicare supplement PLAN.
As you watch posts here, you will see discussions on interesting situations that arise when people did not enroll in Parts or Plans when they were eligible to do so without penalties.
I don't know what rules a carrier applies in relation to CMS allowed enrollment dates, but I would attribute whatever those variances are that you are seeing to be a manifestation of "the desire to get there first". Us Medicare beneficiaries, or at least the information about us, is a commodity to sales persons such as yourself. The objective is to obtain some money from that commodity. So if you can find me five months before I turn 65 and get a contract and deposit from me, you have reduced the possibility that the person that finds me two months before I turn 65 will be able to get a contract and deposit from me for themselves and some other carrier. (or whatever the right time frames are)
Hope there is something in there that is helpful to you and wish you the best in your selling.
LD
- 11,280
Just ignore LD’s post. He likes to post a ton of worthless information and is not an agent...
- 30,339
LD, Med Supps have an IEP of 6 months. The 7 months you refer to(3 months before, the month of and 3 months after your birthday) is for Part C(MA/MAPD) and Part D(Prescriptions).
- 6,986
Which is what I said, 7 months for Medicare, 6 months for Medigap/Medsupps.LD, Med Supps have an IEP of 6 months. The 7 months you refer to(3 months before, the month of and 3 months after your birthday) is for Part C(MA/MAPD) and Part D(Prescriptions).
A 7 month time period, which op mentioned in his first post and a 6 month time period which he mentioned in a later post are both valid enrollment periods depending on which set of facts one works with.
Op appears to me to be struggling with a same issue which you challenged me about many months ago, getting parts and plans and the related technical details confused. I did not much like it at the time, but your posts pointing out to me about misusing the terminology of Parts and Plans were most useful in reminding about ways to focus thinking. It just seems to me like op, as a new agent, is experiencing some of the same confusion, which he will get through much more quickly than I have because he is having to explain it to folks multiple times every day.
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- 6,986
7 Months Medicare PARTS A and B
Part A & Part B sign up periods | Medicare.gov
7 Months Medicare PART D
Joining a health or drug plan | Medicare.gov
6 Months Medicare Supplement (Medigap) PLANS
When can I buy Medigap? | Medicare.gov
- 6,986
I don't blame you, the post was way too long. I have made a diligent effort not to make posts this long in the last few months. I just didn't know how to say what I wanted to say and make it shorter.
In rereading, I also see it is subject to confusion about my intent because I neglected to say anything about 6 months in the medicare supplement paragraph. My bad there, I had the discussion op and somarco had about 6months in my mind, but since I didn't say it, there is no reason anyone should believe me.
And my Medicare supplement iep or open enrollment WAS 7 years after my Medicare iep because I did not enroll in part B during my Medicare iep.
- 2,452
There’s something wrong about an agent posting for help, and one of the responses is full of confusing and false information by someone who admits to not being a licensed agent. Why are people allowed to post here that aren’t qualified to do so?
There
