PDP for T-65s

[Guest]

Those of you who sell med supps to T-65s, do you sign the client up with a PDP yourself or just tell them to call Medicare and request one? If you sign them up yourself, can you tell me any companies that you prefer over others?

 

[Carbmofo]

I usually call Medicare when I am finished with the supp and do it with the client. I prefer not to deal with CMS strictly-regulated products, but I do on occasion. Generally speaking, if they are on NO meds, medicare will put them on First Health, in my area at least, because it is the cheapest. If they are on just a few meds, AARP seems to be their next go-to, in my experience.

 

[Chazm]

I usually give them two options. I tell them that PDP plans are not standardized like med supps and therefore not as easy to know which one is best for them. I tell them I can write down their drugs and put it into medicare.gov for them and let them know their options or I can just sign them up for AARP right now which has a good plan.

I'd say 1 out of 3 times they just take aarp

 

[MrMack]

Humana often has a $0 Deductible and sometimes Aetna Drug plan when it is allowed to be sold by CMS.

 

[Guest]

I usually give them two options. I tell them that PDP plans are not standardized like med supps and therefore not as easy to know which one is best for them. I tell them I can write down their drugs and put it into medicare.gov for them and let them know their options or I can just sign them up for AARP right now which has a good plan.

I'd say 1 out of 3 times they just take aarp

I have an appointment with a t-65 on Thursday, she suffers from Multiple Sclorosis. As you can imagine she takes a LOT of different drugs.

I'm going to sign her to a Plan F since it is the most comprehensive, do you think AARP has the biggest formulary for PDP? I'm actually not currently contracted with any PDP companies so I was going to call Medicare with her and have them assign her one.

 

[Carbmofo]

If you have their drug names handy, you can go to medicare.gov and put them in right now (or whenever you want lol). But really, it all depends on which drugs, as some are covered with different companies, and not others. The AARP does seem like one of the more recommended plans, and since I am appointed with them, I will write it if medicare recommend it for that particular case.

 

[jdeasy]

Those of you who sell med supps to T-65s, do you sign the client up with a PDP yourself or just tell them to call Medicare and request one? If you sign them up yourself, can you tell me any companies that you prefer over others?

I get their medicines and enter them into the formulary finder at medicare.gov. That tells me which plan has the most of their drugs covered. We then go over the decutalbes and the premium and make an educated decision. I help them enroll on line or by phone into what ever plan is best for them.

If they don't take any meds, but, want to get a PDP, I find the lowest cost plan without a deductalbe and help them enroll into that one.

I do not get paid by any plans. There is no way to help people make an unbiased decision if you have appointments with with the PDP plans that you are steering them towards.

If people already have a plan and are satisfied with how it's working, I tell them to leave it alone.

 

[lflashman]

I get their medicines and enter them into the formulary finder at medicare.gov. That tells me which plan has the most of their drugs covered. We then go over the decutalbes and the premium and make an educated decision. I help them enroll on line or by phone into what ever plan is best for them.

If they don't take any meds, but, want to get a PDP, I find the lowest cost plan without a deductalbe and help them enroll into that one.

I do not get paid by any plans. There is no way to help people make an unbiased decision if you have appointments with with the PDP plans that you are steering them towards.

If people already have a plan and are satisfied with how it's working, I tell them to leave it alone.

That's exactly what I do. Reason is, clients tend to have so many reasons with the plans. When I did actually write them, I'd get calls saying that my prescription plan didn't work right, and they wanted to cancel the supplement. So I just quit writing them. I tell them I don't, and that there are about 50 in this area, and I'll do a computer search to find out which one Medicare saya would save them the most money. If they don't have a computer, I'll bring a printout when I deliver their policy and have them call the plan. Keeps me out of the middle of problems. If they have an issue I can blame Medicare for picking the plan.

 

[Justin Bilyj]

I have just started in this, but this is what I do. I explain to them that if they have medications, to either go to medicare.gov or to a walgreens pharmacy to input the drugs to see what plans best fit their unique medication situation. I guess I could do that for my clients, but as of now I don't.
My clients are medicare supplement buyers, but I am getting my MA and PDP licensing done so that I can offer all choices to my clients (why leave money on the table?).
When I explain the PDP's, I often go to the medicare gov site to print out a list of pdp's available in the area, I also use Ritter's quoting engine to get a price for the pdp's. I explain how you have basically a 3 tiered system for pdp's.
-Cheap plans for around $30 a month, that have a deductible and no coverage for the doughnut hole
-Moderately priced plans that don't have a deductible, but contain no coverage for the hole, they go for around $75 a month.
-Then theres the top notched plans that have no deductible, and have "many generics" that they offer the Senior during the doughnut hole. And they go for about $110 a month.

If they don't have any meds, I always recommend atleast a moderate plan with no deductible.
I also get a list of the best priced plans and compare the arbitrary user ratings on the medicare gov site.
I let my client then choose, which tier they want to go with. I give them the number to call, and they sign up over the phone.

 

[insurance0707]

I have helped my clients enroll into a plan by doing a 3 way phone call to medicare and sometimes we call the insurance company directly and enroll them over the phone. You should try this sometime. It's quite the eye-opener. It takes about 20 -30 minutes. They are read a very long disclaimer that takes about 10 minutes. It's read very quickly and once their finished reading this long disclaimer, they are asked, do you understand what we just told you. The client, never fails, says I have no idea what you just said but alright...whatever. I warn the client up front that they will be read, almost from a script when we call and it will take about 20 minutes. If you prepare them for this then it's not so bad. Signing them up over the phone sounds like a good idea, but you should be on the line with your client, just so you can see what actually happens to them. It's not a pleasant experience.