Medicare / Supps Info

amberwalk

New Member
Hi,
Im licensed for Life/Health in Alabama. About a year and a half ago I was with Colonial Life For a little over 6 months. I received little to no training while there and was greatly disappointed with the group I was with. I took a break for a while after the death of my closest friend to help her family adjust. I have a few questions because so much of this is overwhelming if you do not have a mentor.
Right now, I am specifically interested in Medicare and Supplements.
1. I dont think I want to be captive, but I would like SOME training/guidance. How do I go about getting that without being captive?
2. Pros and cons of contracting with a local company or a company like Ritter.
3. Chris Westfall/Medicare Agent Training reviews? I know that he is on here so please lets keep it professional.
4. I was told that is was illegal to call Seniors. True/False? What are the guidelines?
5. I am very motivated to learn BUT I have no idea where to start. Please help me :)
Thank you in advance
 
Let me be clear, I am NOT an agent.

First, in relation to your questions 4 and 5-a starting point. Spend a little time with Medicare and You-a publication which Medicare eligible folks receive annually. The Medicare system breaks health insurance coverage up differently than the employer group health plans which many of us are used to.

Get a general sense of Parts A, B, C and D in your head. Then read a bit about Medigap/Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage and PDP (prescription drug plans)-again just a general overview. The government sells Parts A and B. As a sales professional, you will be supplementing the government's Part B product and/or providing Part C and Part D products. The reading will give you a framework to help structure your training and sales considerations.

In regard to education, do not ignore CMS itself. One link:

Outreach & Education - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

In the spring I was considering becoming an agent and did searching about different imos. I chose not to become an agent, but the searching is the basis for the following:

I thought this one provided good training resources. (If you choose to do any additional searching, please be careful with your results-this is SMS in Columbia MO. There is also an SMS in NE involved with medicare sales.)

Training - Senior Marketing Specialists

Also, if I had license in hand, I would be exchanging some phone calls and/or pms with Todd King to get a better understanding about what types of support he and Matthew are able to offer new Med Supp agents.

Those are just my thoughts from the outside looking in. Experienced agents doing this everyday will have lots of other opinions about resources.

Best wishes for your Medicare related career.
 
Last edited:
Let me be clear, I am NOT an agent.

First, in relation to your questions 4 and 5-a starting point. Spend a little time with Medicare and You-a publication which Medicare eligible folks receive annually. The Medicare system breaks health insurance coverage up differently than the employer group health plans which many of us are used to.

Get a general sense of Parts A, B, C and D in your head. Then read a bit about Medigap/Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage and PDP (prescription drug plans)-again just a general overview. The government sells Parts A and B. As a sales professional, you will be supplementing the government's Part B product and/or providing Part C and Part D products. The reading will give you a framework to help structure your training and sales considerations.

In regard to education, do not ignore CMS itself. One link:

Outreach & Education - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

In the spring I was considering becoming an agent and did searching about different imos. I chose not to become an agent, but the searching is the basis for the following:

I thought this one provided good training resources. (If you choose to do any additional searching, please be careful with your results-this is SMS in Columbia MO. There is also an SMS in NE involved with medicare sales.)

Training - Senior Marketing Specialists

Also, if I had license in hand, I would be exchanging some phone calls and/or pms with Todd King to get a better understanding about what types of support he and Matthew are able to offer new Med Supp agents.

Those are just my thoughts from the outside looking in. Experienced agents doing this everyday will have lots of other opinions about resources.

Best wishes for your Medicare related career.

Thanks for the shout out LD. Amberwalk, yes, please give us a call sometime.
 
1. I dont think I want to be captive, but I would like SOME training/guidance. How do I go about getting that without being captive?
2. Pros and cons of contracting with a local company or a company like Ritter.
3. Chris Westfall/Medicare Agent Training reviews? I know that he is on here so please lets keep it professional.
4. I was told that is was illegal to call Seniors. True/False? What are the guidelines?
5. I am very motivated to learn BUT I have no idea where to start. Please help me :)
Thank you in advance

1. Searching and reading the forum is free. MAT is almost free. Rick's training is also inexpensive (I've not taken his, but I hear it's good).

Here's how I've always thought of it: If you spend $1,000 on training (more than most training pricing) - and you get one more sale - didn't it pay for itself long-term? (i.e., $250 x 6).

In other words... don't worry about reviews and analyzing training ahead of time. It's a tiny risk - just take it and start selling.

2. depends on local company.

3. You have nothing to lose. See #1 above. Just take it, learn, think for yourself, and move on and sell.

4. False. Look up guidelines (in short, MA/MAPD no cold call - Med Supp - no cold call Ohio only).

5. Start by calling a 64 year old senior and selling them a medicare supplement.

Seriously - start by selling. Don't research it to death. Get out there . If you worked the market already, you already know what a supp is. It's not rocket surgery. Go sell or lose money researching.
 
I would think it would be tough competing against BCBSAL, but I might be wrong. I think there are some carriers that don't care if you call a list of T65 for MS. UHC prohibits this. They even say if you lead with another carrier and end up selling UHC it is unsolicited contact.
 
I thought Cigna was an ok company to work with. According to AL ins dept age 65 table, Cigna is $50 per mo cheaper than BCBSAL for F and also offers HiF, G and N. Doesn't that give a basis for competition?
 
Medicare Agent Training provides the most on demand training covering all the real life details. It comes from someone who is doing every day. The IMO's of the world can provide some training but it is spotty and often comes from people not in the field. IMO's primary focus is to distribute products. Med. Agent Training via their membership is selling step by step knowledge to get it done. Big difference vs the IMO's. Knowledge to execute will always trump an IMO pushing product!
 
I would think it would be tough competing against BCBSAL, but I might be wrong. I think there are some carriers that don't care if you call a list of T65 for MS. UHC prohibits this. They even say if you lead with another carrier and end up selling UHC it is unsolicited contact.
I live in Alabama and it is difficult to compete with BCBS of AL. Almost everyone who works for a company has BC as their group health plan. When people retire they naturally pivot to BC. They on offer a Plan B and Plan F and their rates are not competitive with other carriers who offer Plan G and Plan N.
 
Medicare Agent Training provides the most on demand training covering all the real life details. It comes from someone who is doing every day. The IMO's of the world can provide some training but it is spotty and often comes from people not in the field. IMO's primary focus is to distribute products. Med. Agent Training via their membership is selling step by step knowledge to get it done. Big difference vs the IMO's. Knowledge to execute will always trump an IMO pushing product!

Agreed, it's good, but you still need to watch out for mis-information - especially on mapd which they sell against.

I recently watched a video on Facebook where he said to tell prospects who are considering an MAPD plan, that the agent trying to sell it is incentivized by a $560 commission. It's a "windfall" to the agent (yes, quoting).

Perhaps most of us just haven't found this unicorn MAPD plan paying us $560?

I'm fine with competition. Sell your product because you believe in it - but some of the MAPD mis-training on the site bugs me. It's like a used car salesman trying to smear the competition down the street...

At the end of the day, though, it is a great site if you can filter the anti-mapd bias.
 
Agreed, it's good, but you still need to watch out for mis-information - especially on mapd which they sell against.

I recently watched a video on Facebook where he said to tell prospects who are considering an MAPD plan, that the agent trying to sell it is incentivized by a $560 commission. It's a "windfall" to the agent (yes, quoting).

Generally agents do make more selling MA vs Medigap but I don't think I have heard of any carriers offering $560 for an MA plan.

I have noticed agents selling "free" Medicare plans and then backloading the sale with HI, cancer, etc to boost their commission towards $1,000.
 
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