Medicare Advantage Agents Should Tell Consumers About Medigap: CMS

[Northeast Agent]

Medicare Advantage Agents Should Tell Consumers About Medigap: CMS

Officials want people to understand just how narrow their window to sign up for flexible gap-filler coverage is.

www.thinkadvisor.com

Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have included a Medicare supplement insurance awareness section in a proposed list of matters CMS wants producers to discuss with consumers during enrollment sessions.

CMS officials put the consumer enrollment conversation guide in a new set of proposed requirements for the plans and marketing strategies that health insurers will be using to participate in the Medicare Advantage plan program and Medicare Part D prescription drug plan program in 2026.

 

[straightnochaser]

Because we don't already?

 

[somarco]

Consumers are told of Medicare supplement plans . . . they have a premium you can't afford.

Fortunately for me, many agents do such a poor job of explaining Medigap coverage, they leave the door wide open for me to grow my business.

 

[Millwood]

Consumers challenged by a decade of limited health insurance options

A 10-year comparison by AMA finds low competition in nearly all health insurance markets.

www.ama-assn.org

The cities with the least competitive Medicare Advantage markets | 2024

"Discover the top Medicare Advantage markets with high concentration of one payer controlling over 70% of the market, according to American Medical Association.

www.beckerspayer.com

Some agents are MAPD only and some are Med Supp only. Neither fit all.

Some areas without high population don't work well for MAPD. Some MAPD agents are lazy and don't want to underwrite a Med Supp. Some Med Supp only agents are set in their ways and don't want change.
If an agent isn't willing to do what is best for the client , the client suffers.

Professional agents police themselves. Professional agents don't need yearly ethics certifications to be ethical, just like yearly ethics certifications don't make crooked agents ethical.
What we really need are better consumers that take real interest in their own wellbeing. Unfortunately many today are morons. I attribute it to most being covered by a group with only a low or high option. If you and the consumer don't engage in these discussions they stand to lose the most. But the agent has to do the heavy lifting and find out which.
BTW I live and sell mostly in low density rural areas of Ok.