Why Didn't I Focus on MA for the Last 10 Years?

[Alston]

What do you mean when you state that you have to service your clients, send them a birthday card and maybe a letter once or twice a year? I thought most carriers wanted the insured to call them if there is a problem?

I think an MA client deserves at least a phone call once a year to make sure that the policy they have is the policy they should have for the following year.

Next year policy they currently have may:

• May no longer be available
• May not cover their current prescriptions
• May not have their current physicians in their provider list.

If I had to have a brief chat with 1,000 clients and a face-to-face with 10% of them spread out over the course of 200+ working days I'd be good with that. (In fact that is my goal.) But when virtually everyone renews at the same time, that is a problem.

Contacting each client, answering their questions and asking them questions takes way too much time if it all has to be done during the AEP and the two weeks prior.

Selling MA is not like selling life insurance. The prices and benefits change every year. Companies leave the area entirely or withdraw policies. Clients have health changes and want to upgrade their policies to a gap plan or a to a more robust MA plan. And so on.

It's not even like selling auto insurance. There is certainly service work associated with P&C, but policy renewals and change requests are spread out over the course of the year.

 

[somarco]

I thought most carriers wanted the insured to call them if their is a problem?

I tell my clients to contact me first.

Unless they don't have a problem
- pressing 1 for English
- leaving a message
- doesn't matter who calls them back
- knowing they will call back while in the shower
- willing to play phone tag and still not getting the right answer
- being on hold for 45 minutes

 

[policy doctor]

I would hate to deal with 1,000 clients. Even if you have staff most want to talk to you, the original agent. I would think having a central location like an office would be important so they could come to you. If you have to drive to their house all over 5 counties...forget it.

I like the money but hate the business. I find looking up those drugs is getting more tedious mainly because some seniors are Hooked on Drugs. They got too many. And can't blame them for shopping because ins companies have repriced some of those tiers. But the time...the time...ugh.

Another thing....when there are new plans ...you can't get to all of them fast enough. Always somebody heard about it from someone else...and they tell their buddies (who were your referrals) and now you lost 3-4 at one time. LOL So I guess there are 2 groups....the one that comes to you (seminar, office, etc) and the ones you have to meet-up at their location.

 

[vic120]

I would hate to deal with 1,000 clients. Even if you have staff most want to talk to you, the original agent. I would think having a central location like an office would be important so they could come to you. If you have to drive to their house all over 5 counties...forget it.

I like the money but hate the business. I find looking up those drugs is getting more tedious mainly because some seniors are Hooked on Drugs. They got too many. And can't blame them for shopping because ins companies have repriced some of those tiers. But the time...the time...ugh.

Another thing....when there are new plans ...you can't get to all of them fast enough. Always somebody heard about it from someone else...and they tell their buddies (who were your referrals) and now you lost 3-4 at one time. LOL So I guess there are 2 groups....the one that comes to you (seminar, office, etc) and the ones you have to meet-up at their location.

Drugs are not much an Issue the more I do this the faster I get though drug check.

Most of my clients are med supp but I have enough MA people to be a headache, there is always at least a half a dozen or better each year effected by a change they don't like on current plan and will suck the time out of me going back and forth between plans, act is if they are confused, But really the issue is not they don't understand they just don't like the answers.

They want what they had, only what they had no longer exist and they want to go over and over the different plans as if they will somehow magically be better then the first time I explained it

This year 8 clients just sucked up so much time, minimum of going over the top 3 plans minimum of 4 different phone calls, 1 guy 8 phone calls.,I cring when I see the number come up, when I am on the phone with a prospect 5 leads just came in and 3 follow ups to call but here it is agian, Uh I just was looking at this summary can we just go over this again. Really???

It always seems to be NY or FL client, (and I am originally from NY)

I have MA clients in other states that are never an issue like that

 

[kstein]

I would hate to deal with 1,000 clients. Even if you have staff most want to talk to you, the original agent. I would think having a central location like an office would be important so they could come to you. If you have to drive to their house all over 5 counties...forget it.

I like the money but hate the business. I find looking up those drugs is getting more tedious mainly because some seniors are Hooked on Drugs. They got too many. And can't blame them for shopping because ins companies have repriced some of those tiers. But the time...the time...ugh.

Another thing....when there are new plans ...you can't get to all of them fast enough. Always somebody heard about it from someone else...and they tell their buddies (who were your referrals) and now you lost 3-4 at one time. LOL So I guess there are 2 groups....the one that comes to you (seminar, office, etc) and the ones you have to meet-up at their location.

I had really good success sending out a pre aep letter asking for their drug list, along with their demographic info (basically a bio on themselves so I don't have to look things up). That has saved me a ton of time, I then emailed med.gov reports along with pdf of some apps at night. Really helped me get those troublesome clients that always need reassurance that the sky isn't falling. It made me much more efficient this year.

I've started to delegate some of the Rx stuff to 2 secretaries and I'll agree that the client typically wants to talk to the agent. However, if they call the client first, rather than field the phone call, I find the person is much more receptive to talking to someone else.

 

[Bevo]

I'm not saying you can't write med supposed in FL. We all do. But if you live in FL and run T65's every week, you have to offer mapd to be here. I write in some other states and only do med supps. But to think you understand the FL market to run T65's, you are mistaken.
But if what we are doing works, why would we change it?

I never implied that I did understand the FL market to "run T65's". I don't want to "Run" any age bracket, sounds like way too much time wasted in your car running around. If this is what you mean by run, and you're doing it, that's your choice. It's not necessary to be successful and get clients. You can sell by phone in many other great states besides FL.

And as I mentioned before, if you're happy doing what you're doing I could care less if you change it or not. And if you're saying it works, then fine. But "works" is a relative term. Sounds to me like you MAPD guys are definitely putting the "work" in each year.

If you recall, my first post in this thread was in response to someone stating their friend had 1000 MAPD clients and is now, during AEP, seeing 30 CURRENT clients per week.

My point to that, if you haven't gotten it by now, isn't to not service those people. It's to shed light on the other wonderful, beautiful option of if they were Med Supp clients and not MAPD clients, he wouldn't be wasting valuable acquisition time servicing current clients just to keep them on the books. That same time could be spent adding new clients.

I'm not saying ditch your business model. In fact some of you are likely thinking you're too far in to make any big changes at this stage. But if the primary sales producer of a business is spending the 10 most profitable weeks of the year in retention, I am saying something is wrong with the business.

If you like doing that great (I cannot see why on Earth you would). I'm merely encouraging whoever is doing that to immediately try to find a solution. Sure there's service with Med Supps. Much of it can and should be automated.

I will say, that we are most certainly NOT having to go through all that work just to retain our current Med Supp clients each year during the most profitable time of year, not by the longest of shots. Our hours are spent during AEP on acquiring new clients. Only at 4x the rate of normal Non-AEP months. From a business perspective which is the most important one, THAT works.

Just for the record, I'd like to add I really am not trying to down-play having a successful MAPD insurance agency. Even with all that extra work, if you're self-employed and bringing home enough to do okay by whatever standards you have, with no boss looking over your shoulder, in my book that's a massive success for sure.

Like I mentioned earlier, if it makes you happy then keep on doing it.

So if any newbies are reading this thread, they'll now be able to see some the big advantages and disadvantages of starting up a MAPD-heavy business, or Med Supp.

 

[Chazm]

I never implied that I did understand the FL market to "run T65's". I don't want to "Run" any age bracket, sounds like way too much time wasted in your car running around. If this is what you mean by run, and you're doing it, that's your choice. It's not necessary to be successful and get clients. You can sell by phone in many other great states besides FL.

And as I mentioned before, if you're happy doing what you're doing I could care less if you change it or not. And if you're saying it works, then fine. But "works" is a relative term. Sounds to me like you MAPD guys are definitely putting the "work" in each year.

If you recall, my first post in this thread was in response to someone stating their friend had 1000 MAPD clients and is now, during AEP, seeing 30 CURRENT clients per week.

My point to that, if you haven't gotten it by now, isn't to not service those people. It's to shed light on the other wonderful, beautiful option of if they were Med Supp clients and not MAPD clients, he wouldn't be wasting valuable acquisition time servicing current clients just to keep them on the books. That same time could be spent adding new clients.

I'm not saying ditch your business model. In fact some of you are likely thinking you're too far in to make any big changes at this stage. But if the primary sales producer of a business is spending the 10 most profitable weeks of the year in retention, I am saying something is wrong with the business.

If you like doing that great (I cannot see why on Earth you would). I'm merely encouraging whoever is doing that to immediately try to find a solution. Sure there's service with Med Supps. Much of it can and should be automated.

I will say, that we are most certainly NOT having to go through all that work just to retain our current Med Supp clients each year during the most profitable time of year, not by the longest of shots. Our hours are spent during AEP on acquiring new clients. Only at 4x the rate of normal Non-AEP months. From a business perspective which is the most important one, THAT works.

Just for the record, I'd like to add I really am not trying to down-play having a successful MAPD insurance agency. Even with all that extra work, if you're self-employed and bringing home enough to do okay by whatever standards you have, with no boss looking over your shoulder, in my book that's a massive success for sure.

Like I mentioned earlier, if it makes you happy then keep on doing it.

So if any newbies are reading this thread, they'll now be able to see some the big advantages and disadvantages of starting up a MAPD-heavy business, or Med Supp.

And clients are being added too, every week. I just don't understand how everyone on here thinks their model is better than the next guys. This site is rather annoying when some have the, "you're not doing it my way, and it's the best, but if you want to do it, do it" attitude. I'm actually pretty sure most people on this site aren't even close to 1k clients.

I should of mentioned too that him and I set up in local restaurant chains and service our existing clients. Med supp and mapd. I'm not sure why you keep insinuating it's a mapd model. I've only said, if you work T65's here you have to do both.

The cheapest company is UHC, they have roughly 50% of the market share and have the lowest rate increases. So you're not moving many people by marketing med supps only in Fl. Sure, you'll trip over some biz.

I sell in other states, like I mentioned before, but I still do much better working T65's here. I don't market during AEP and I still get tons of new clients.
Your way may work for you, but I've tried it and it doesn't work as well for me as this does. So I'm not sure why you're trying to convince me.

Edit: and as I hit submit, I just realize what you said. That you don't spend much time servicing your clients during AEP. That must mean you don't do part D. Because I can tell you part D is much more of a headache than mapd. Part D is horrible and changes drastically every year. So if you're not doing part D, it makes sense.

 

[kgmom219]

My way is best

And he isn't...Bevo is awesome at "do what works for you and forget everyone else"

 

[G.Gordon]

So you have four people servicing 1500 clients right now. So that's 375 per staff member. And you think your capacity is around 600 per staff member.

I wonder what you are doing that I'm not. You must have systems in place allow you to be very efficient. Please share an overview of how you help clients during the AEP.

Late Sept we mail out a request for provider and drug list, we start running those comparisons on a first come first served basis. We're already north of 900 reviews completed. That "I'm done" feeling is what makes them talk and refer more people.

 

[Bevo]

I'm not sure why you keep insinuating it's a mapd model. I've only said, if you work T65's here you have to do both.

Chazm,

My first post getting into this thread had nothing to do with you or your model as I've mentioned twice now. I quoted someone else who DID have a MAPD model (1000 clients) and was seeing 30 CURRENT clients per week.

My statements however, likely do apply to a lot more people on here. And the reason I give out options and ideas and then tell you "but if you want to keep doing what you're doing, go for it" is not to merely annoy you, it's COMMON SENSE.

I don't know you guys. I don't know what motivates you. I don't know your quarterly or annual business goals, or even if you have any goals at all. You may absolutely love what you're doing, and have no interest in changing no matter what. Maybe your personal life outside your business is so chaotic that you don't care if you even lose money in business. Fine. I'm smart enough to realize that. So what would annoy you more, me giving ideas and options, then telling you "You absolutely SHOULD be doing it this way!" , or saying "do what fits you best". Again common sense.

I WILL tell everyone this and it's fact, and it bears repeating: If the primary revenue producer of your company is doing mostly retention in the most profitable 10 weeks of the business year, you have a LOUSY BUSINESS PLAN.

Again the original person I quoted was in that situation, and I know of several other agency owners who are as well. If it's not you Chazm, perfect.

I often post and try to give back a little, and many people have thanked me on here for that. If one person gets one little idea from here that helps them it's all worth it, whether they tell me or not. God knows I've gotten a ton of ideas on here from people who took the time to share them.

And Hell No we don't sell Part D. We sell Med Supps exclusively, in over 40 states all by phone. We have zero MAPD clients with no intention of ever changing that. The outcome of that provides for myself, my agents, and our families an absolute dream life that most people don't even believe is possible. But then again, that was MY goal all along.

Best Wishes to all