Marketing Medicare Supp to Seniors Not in IEP

jmarkk1

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Please understand that I'm still relatively new to the Medicare "crowd." I've mainly worked with T65 clients and AEP clients that are switching to another MA plan.

I'm a little confused about what kind of marketing can be done to those seniors outside their enrollment period because the issues of "insurability" seem to be a big problem.

If I'm mailing to seniors 66 and older, I know that some of these clients are interested in "saving" money because their premiums have jumped up on them, but how many of these clients will be able to qualify for coverage? In other words, how realistic is it to write someone outside of their IEP on a med supplement? I know AARP has the ability to go almost 3 yrs. from Part B effective date to write, but other than them, what can be done?

Most seniors that I've met with...keep in mind T65....would not be healthy enough to qualify for med supp outside of IEP.

Any advice?
 
Good question. I'll be interested in the answers. I just started Med Supps myself, and am purely doing cold calling to t65 lists. I don't mind doing it, but I do want to expand outside the t65. wondering if mailings are a decent way to get their attention or not. I don't think mailings to t65 are useful at all, they get so much crap. I only send a letter out to people who specifically ask for it. There's a thread somewhere about mailings to seniors over 65 and the regulations. Seems to more trouble than it's worth, so maybe just adding that age group to my cold-call list is the better way. cheaper to! haha

I'm not yet licensed to sell MAs so I don't want to contact retirement homes or community centers because I can image that if I tried to do a seminar, I'd be asked about those plans and CMS rules prohibit me from talking about them. I don't plan on selling MAs unless I have to, but figure having that option in the bag is always a plus. Working on getting it done, hopefully in a month of so.

I would imagine that prospecting for over 65s would be the same as T65 other than you'd need to get more information over the phone before heading to the appointment, make sure it's even worth the time involved. I'm re-writing a 68 year old wife of a T65 husband in a couple of weeks. He was thrilled to find out I could save her 60 bucks a month for changing plans, but she's on 1 medication and is 'a horse', according to the husband. I assumed that meant she was healthy! Hahaha
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Oh, don't know if you have MoO or UoO, but I was told by their underwriter that they take diabetics/HBP as long as they aren't taking more than 2 meds for each issue. That seems to be the biggest issue with older people, so that's a selling point for MoO/UoO......

Don't know much about the rest of the companies I write with, like I said I'm really new, and still trying to learn all the information.
 
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I love when people post that mailing to T65's is a waste.
Is all about knowing how to set the appointment.

Jdeasey can easily set appts for life ins mailers and people get a ton of those too. He just knows how to get in the door.

This topic has been brought up over and over in the senior section and I always say the same thing. Mailers work for me and the 3 guys I work with.
Frank will post in 5 minutes how mailers do not work and to stay away from T65's. He's found that they are too difficult to work with. I personally love them and find them easy most of the time.

Just try different things and see which works best for you. No one here has to best answer for you
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Can edit from phone but
*has the best answer for you
 
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I love when people post that mailing to T65's is a waste.
Is all about knowing how to set the appointment.

Jdeasey can easily set appts for life ins mailers and people get a ton of those too. He just knows how to get in the door.

This topic has been brought up over and over in the senior section and I always say the same thing. Mailers work for me and the 3 guys I work with.
Frank will post in 5 minutes how mailers do not work and to stay away from T65's. He's found that they are too difficult to work with. I personally love them and find them easy most of the time.

Just try different things and see which works best for you. No one here has to best answer for you
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Can edit from phone but
*has the best answer for you

I actually like the t65 crowd so far, I don't have problems calling them. The ones I set appointments for are all so far either a new client or will be in the future (there are always ones who just won't buy today, and I'm still new enough that I am having trouble getting around that particular issue. I'm sure in the future I'll get better at convincing them to just get it over with) I haven't had any no-shows at all. And only 2 called and cancelled the appointment and wouldn't reschedule.

As far as mailings, in my area, and with people I've spoken to, most of them tend to ignore any mail from anyone other than specific carriers, so I just figure it's cheaper for me to call them direct. Or stop by, which is what I'm planning to do in the next couple of weeks with the people I haven't been able to get a hold of on the phone...
 
The original question pertained to seniors outside of IEP being healthy enough to qualify for a med supp. The answer for most is definitely yes.

Just because someone is over 65 doesn't mean they're sick.

Sure, some will have problems precluding a change but most are healthy enough as long as you stick to the under 80 crowd.

They will be grateful if you save them some money and compared to T65, the premiums and therefore commissions are higher.

BTW, Frank will not say T65 is a waste to mail. He says it's more productive to go for older ages. That's been my experience as well.

Rick
 
Most seniors that I've met with...keep in mind T65....would not be healthy enough to qualify for med supp outside of IEP.

How do you know this?

I have only been working this market for about a year and probably 80% of my clients went through medical underwriting and almost every one was approved.
 
I'm a little confused about what kind of marketing can be done to those seniors outside their enrollment period because the issues of "insurability" seem to be a big problem.

Most seniors that I've met with...keep in mind T65....would not be healthy enough to qualify for med supp outside of IEP.

Any advice?

You can successfully market them anyway you want.

I'm not sure where you are getting your information, that seniors are not healthy enough to answer the health questions on the application. If you are really writing those T65 your statement implies that you are asking them the health questions even though they are in their Open Enrollment period. If so, why?

For over eighteen years I have been targeting seniors between the ages of 67 and 78 and it is very seldom that I encounter prospects that can't successfully answer the health questions. I wrote two apps this week on people over 74 and both of them easily qualified.

I hear this from agents all of the time. They automatically assume that the majority of seniors have one foot in the grave. (Note: the underwriting for Med Supps is extremely liberal.) It goes right along with agents assuming that once a person turns 65 that they become instantly broke, must eat cat food and don't have the money to purchase a Med Supp.

I guess from a selfish standpoint as an agent I should consider that to be a good thing, just like I consider it to be a good thing when agents only recommend and only sell Plan F. (There may be exceptions based on premium differences.)
 
You can successfully market them anyway you want.

Keep in mind the jmark (OP) is in OH, and he can't market to them anyway he wants. No direct contact in person, meaning can't approach them in the grocery store or put flyers on their auto while parked, or door knock or cold call them. So the new OH law is a game changer for medicare.

To jmark's question about folks being healthy enough to pass u/w... Judging from your prior posts, my perception is that you are working the lower income spectrum of candidates. Those that qualify for LIS. My experience in working this market tells me that the folks are largely less healthy than the overall portion of the over 65 market. Yes, lower socio-economic folks tend to smoke (COPD), eat all the wrong foods, (Diabetes), maybe have head less exposure to healthcare over the span of their lives, etc, etc. So I would say that by working the lower income market that you haven't had a decent sampling of the overall market.

Hence, you need more exposure to a greater portion of the over 65 market. How you accomplish this in OH is going to have to be thru DM, seminars, or other creative means, all of which cost money, unfortunately.
 
The reason I asked this question is because the majority of the people that I've wrote...T65 or AEP clients have issues with diabetes, HBP, etc.

The only reason these issues come up is because the client brings it up.

So, the majority of what I'm writing seems like it would be hard to get issued on a med supp outside the T65 and AEP time tables.

The issue I have is that I haven't written anyone yet that is changing from one med supp to another to save money. So, I'm very naive to the process.

The only comparison I have to individual major medical health plans and how they underwrite. I haven't received any "field" guides from the med supp companies to see how they underwrite risks.

Again...this is why I'm asking the question.
 
A lot of seniors do have HBP AND diabetes so you can't usually move them. You just move on to others that are healthier.

The bright side is...when you wrote them first no other agent can move them either unless they go with MAPD.
 
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