Medicare Cold Call Scenarios

[Tom Highway]

you really didnt just tell another agent to record a conversation with out the clients knowledge...did you?

Heck yes I did!! I don't know about you, but in my state, recording a conversation is perfectly legal, as long as one party consents to the recording, and as long as you (the one making the call) is a part of the call.

Twelve states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

So if you're in one of those states, proceed at your own risk.

But I absolutely feel it's appropriate, if legal, to record conversations when you're dealing with MA.

 

[Josh]

They can fine the company you work and suspend you from selling Medicare Advantage and refer this information to the State Insurance Dept. They can take your license if they want to.

Exactly. CMS has jurisdiction over the plans themselves, so they can give out fines, cancel contracts, etc, and the states have jurisdiction over the agents and any applicable licenses. So if a secret shopper catches an agent knocking doors, they report it to CMS who will report it to the plan and the state. At that point the state may conduct an investigation and they may either fine the agent, revoke the license, or both. Usually they state insurance department, bureau of insurance, etc wouldn't be able to send an agent to jail. If an agent did something criminal like steal from a senior, forge signatures, take premium checks and cash them, etc then those activities would likely be reported to a police department which would handle that end of things, but that would not be coming from CMS or the applicable state insurance department.

 

[FinalExpenseRookie]

Ok...I can see that med supps will not be a good choice for my market. Maybe I should give selling final expense a try again. I just won't use equita, they did not hold up to their end at all. I will try buying my own mailer leads. Does anybody know of a good mailer lead company for final expense? I would rather use a mailer that is specific about it being in regards to life insurance. I feel like the widely used mailers that talk about the Government death benefit being only $225.00 to be a little misleading, like it's from the government or something. I wonder how a postcard with a good headline and a box showing some rates would work?

To bad there is not a final expense policy available that has a critical illness rider you can add to it for major illness like Cancer, Heart and stroke. I think it would be a great attractive benefit, but I guess life companies would lose money doing that because of the target market of final expense.

 

[HarryRenard]

finalexpenseRookie

I think Colorado Bankers Life has a Final expense/critical illness policy, atleast they used to have a hybrid product, I havent written for them in quite a while but you should check them out. I personally have nothing bad to say about them, they always issued quick and paid me quick.

 

[policy doctor]

I think if gov't wants to muzzle the agents from talking about MA unless directly questioned by prospects, then they should muzzle their agents from STEERING
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Sorry, I got cut off for some reason (lol).

I think gov't agents should not STEER any SS/Medicare bene's to any particular companies.

Just had a prospect tell me today that some gal at SS office told them to look into Humana. Hubby just got enrolled in Part B.

I'll try to get more particulars when I set an app't but that sure raised my "consciousness."

Should I keep that info for 10 years?

 

[Tom Highway]

Ok...I can see that med supps will not be a good choice for my market. Maybe I should give selling final expense a try again. I just won't use equita, they did not hold up to their end at all. I will try buying my own mailer leads. Does anybody know of a good mailer lead company for final expense? I would rather use a mailer that is specific about it being in regards to life insurance. I feel like the widely used mailers that talk about the Government death benefit being only $225.00 to be a little misleading, like it's from the government or something. I wonder how a postcard with a good headline and a box showing some rates would work?

To bad there is not a final expense policy available that has a critical illness rider you can add to it for major illness like Cancer, Heart and stroke. I think it would be a great attractive benefit, but I guess life companies would lose money doing that because of the target market of final expense.

Don't give up on med supps so easily, bro. Just be careful in how you document the transition from a med supp to a MAPD if that happens.

I think you may be playing out scenarios in your head that you can avoid. You can cold call on med supps all day long, and I guess you could door knock for med supps or final expense. If somebody, in the process of you cold calling on med supps, steers the conversation to MA, let them. But don't do the steering yourself. Try it for a week or so, and see how many of these scenarios actually happen.

And how did EFES not live up to their end of the deal - inquiring minds want to know. (Do any of y'all remember that phrase?)

 

[jmhopkins40]

Heck yes I did!! I don't know about you, but in my state, recording a conversation is perfectly legal, as long as one party consents to the recording, and as long as you (the one making the call) is a part of the call.

Twelve states require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation. Those jurisdictions are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

So if you're in one of those states, proceed at your own risk.

But I absolutely feel it's appropriate, if legal, to record conversations when you're dealing with MA.

what states do you record client conversations in for MA Plans???

 

[Tom Highway]

what states do you record client conversations in for MA Plans???

Not one of the ones listed as requiring consent from both parties, I can tell you that much.

 

[dandan]

Be SMART... STOP marketing Medicare Advantage Plans, agents should wise up.

 

[AJAX]

The following comes directly from CMS

"70.4 - Marketing through Unsolicited Contacts
(Rev. 91; Issued: 08-07-09; Effective/Implementation Date: 08-07-09)
42 CFR 422.2268(d), 423.2268(d)
As reflected in 42 CFR 422.2268(d) and 42 CFR 423.2268(d), there is a general prohibition on marketing through unsolicited contacts. In general this prohibition includes the following and may extend to other instances of unsolicited contact that may occur outside of advertised sales or educational events. Some examples include:
• Door to door solicitation;
Approaching beneficiaries in common areas (i.e., parking lots, hallways, lobbies, etc.); and …………."


Notice "there is a general prohibition on unsolicited contacts." In other words, If a Bene does not initiate or request contact regarding MA's, you can not approach them.


Even in the scenerio you mentioned, if you have them sign a scope and return 48 hours later, that looks shady. You are walking on thin ice. You might get away with it for some time, however, like some of the other posts mentioned any small complaint to Medicare, any mention of how you first came in contact with the Bene will bring doubt to the whole situation.

Even if the Bene dose not complain. There are a lot of secret shopers out there.