Just in from my FMO for Coventry....

[sman]

Coventry is one of the carriers that was stating agents were required to meet face to face with the client for both MA and PDP. My FMO (Senior Market Sales) had a meeting with them today and I just got an email from Dwane over at SMS stating that apps can be mailed to the client (no face to face required). He also stated they are working on being able to just email them. This is great news here in my neck of the woods as the AF2 is pretty competitive.

Just thought I'd pass it along.

 

[policy doctor]

Yeah, I have the same fmo for Coventry and they are no help if you ever have an issue with Cvty.

I am still waiting for a commis check on a pdp I wrote in august, and calling broker hotline gets you responses like; investigating, rewriting, manual override, being processed, asked for review, etc.

I just sent off a letter to the CFO in Md....let's see if he does anything. In the meantime....i'm not selling anything for them until I get paid.

It took me almost 4 weeks to get paid on another case on which i had to call every 5 days to get the status.

 

[sman]

Yeah, I have the same fmo for Coventry and they are no help if you ever have an issue with Cvty.

I am still waiting for a commis check on a pdp I wrote in august, and calling broker hotline gets you responses like; investigating, rewriting, manual override, being processed, asked for review, etc.

I just sent off a letter to the CFO in Md....let's see if he does anything. In the meantime....i'm not selling anything for them until I get paid.

It took me almost 4 weeks to get paid on another case on which i had to call every 5 days to get the status.

I had some similar issues with Coventry in the beginning and had written them off. I got some folks at SMS involved and they were a tremendous help in getting it resolved. Who did you contact at SMS for help?

 

[policy doctor]

Matt and Dwayne. They gave me the name of the gal who corrects comm errors, and she did help with one case.

I have a tendency to fish-eye any slow pay company.

 

[MedSuppPro]

...I just got an email from Dwane over at SMS stating that apps can be mailed to the client (no face to face required)...

I received an e-mailed late Friday (11/02) that Coventry still has NOT decided to allow apps through the mail for the Advantra RX PDP. I find it hard to believe that they would allow MA's through the mail and NOT PDP's. Didn't CMS crack down on the MA market this past summer?

If Coventry is worried about litigation, then it seems the bigger dollar cases would be on the MA side of the fence. Speaking of fences, Coventry has two separate corporate structures for their MA and PDP plans. Seems the upper management for the PDP side is overly cautious and this could be the reason for their sales prevention rule of no apps through the mail. Of course this rule does NOT apply to their home office sales! If this keeps up, I'm placing my business with CCRx.

I hope your keeping a copy of that e-mail!

 

[sman]

I received an e-mailed late Friday (11/02) that Coventry still has NOT decided to allow apps through the mail for the Advantra RX PDP. I find it hard to believe that they would allow MA's through the mail and NOT PDP's. Didn't CMS crack down on the MA market this past summer?

If Coventry is worried about litigation, then it seems the bigger dollar cases would be on the MA side of the fence. Speaking of fences, Coventry has two separate corporate structures for their MA and PDP plans. Seems the upper management for the PDP side is overly cautious and this could be the reason for their sales prevention rule of no apps through the mail. Of course this rule does NOT apply to their home office sales! If this keeps up, I'm placing my business with CCRx.

I hope your keeping a copy of that e-mail!

Here's a copy of the email I just received 5 minutes ago:


There has been some confusion on the question of whether Coventry permits agents to mail application forms to clients and prospects.

The confusion is no more. Coventry has definitively approved the use of the mail by agents to deliver plan information and application forms to consumers. Despite statements to the contrary in Coventry marketing guidelines, the following is confirmed by Coventry compliance dept. to be true:

An agent may use US mail and/or delivery services such as FEDEX, UPS, etc., to deliver the CMS/Coventry-approved enrollment application with the Coventry pre-sale kit to beneficiaries that ask for product information - PFFS or PDP. Agents do not need, nor should they demand, a face to face meeting to present this hardcopy information to them. Medicare beneficiaries may opt to complete the enrollment form after reviewing the materials and send the application back to the agent for processing.

*
Sam Halpern
Director of Internet Marketing
Senior Market Sales, Inc.
Telephone: 402-343-3647
Fax: 402-391-9688
Email: [email protected]