Bring MA commissions in line with Part D plans?

[Duaine]

Another important proposal would limit how much commission brokers and agents receive to sell MA plans. Currently, brokers and agents have a cap on their commissions for both MA plans with Part D prescription drug coverage and standalone Part D plans; for 2023, the caps were $601 for each MA initial enrollment and $92 for each Part D initial enrollment. As these numbers show, the commissions are much higher for MA than Part D. In practice, they are even higher as many MA plans skirt these rules and pay brokers additional “administrative” fees, which they claim are necessary to cover certain broker expenses. The proposed rule would bump up the commission level somewhat and eliminate these administrative fees to better level the playing field between smaller MA plans, larger MA plans, and standalone Part D plans. While we strongly support closing this loophole, we urged CMS to do much more to bring MA commissions into alignment with those for Part D to avoid the current incentive to sell MA plans even when they are not the best option for individuals.

[EXTERNAL LINK] - Proposed Rule Would Improve Clarity and Transparency in Medicare Advantage, Boost Access to Care - Medicare Rights Center

 

[straightnochaser]

good luck with that

 

[sshafran]

Man I hope not.

 

[sshafran]

Every agent would vacate the industry if MA went to 100/50...

Or just sell med supps.

I'd sell roofs

 

[DonP]

That’s just a bs comment from a medicare rights group . Like the rest of the comments that were put on the website the last 2 months cms won’t listen . 90% of what cms proposed will be approved in the final ruling by late March early April . I’d comp when to $100/$50 I’d simply only answer very simple questions with existing clients. 90% of my answers would be “You need to call the carrier “ . I’d let my book dwindle to nothing . Honestly if marketing money goes away that’s ok with me . I don’t need my fmo to be honest but i do need connecture and if its under $300 a month I’ll pay for it .

 

[InsuranceGuy29]

God, I cannot stand these Medicare group activist people with a passion. They are so criminally uneducated about what they're talking about, it's insane. Just completely lost.

$100-$150/year for Medicare Advantage plan renewals....LOL. These people are smoking crack. Good luck finding agents that are gonna work for those slave wages. Once you pay your agency, you'll be down to $75-$100, then there's taxes.

To be honest, I think even the current rate of $300/year is somewhat low. If they did this, you would literally have ZERO agents, overnight. I make almost as much on bs dental policies, and those are 1/10th the work.

I'm not running the equivalent of a charity. I don't even write PDP plans because they're so criminally low in pay and they're not worth the mountain of extra work and headaches. I just farm it out to another agency.

MA plans are a ton of work. When you account for all costs, fees, and taxes we incur, the wages would come out to that of a below-minimum-wage Uber driver.

These people think there's this huge incentive to push MA plans, and there just isn't. When all is said and done, the pay averages out to roughly the same. My statement last month came out to $25 and change for both my MA clients and my supplement clients.

One KEY thing these clueless groups always leave out when comparing MA pay to supplement pay.....there are so many different variables involved, you can't say that one makes more than the other. It depends on what the carrier pays for supplements, if they offer any supplement bonuses, etc. All supplements also need additional dental/vision/hearing and Part D policies.

That boosts the pay by an average of $14/month, which actually puts it ABOVE the renewals of MA plans, per month and year. But overall, it's just a peanuts small difference. It's not swaying any agent that writes both MA and supplements.

I write a good amount of Medicare Advantage plans because THEY'RE POPULAR IN MY AREA AND THEY ACTUALLY ARE GOOD. If there's one thing these morons need to finally get through their thick skulls, it would be that.

Everyone does not have the same wants, needs, desires, budgets, etc. That's why it's good to have OPTIONS with many different types of plans, both supplements and Medicare Advantage.

Also, 80% of the MA policies agents write are $300/year.....for an ENTIRE year, not $600.

It's like I keep saying, there's a war on ALL agents with these commie groups of Bernie Bros.....supplement, MA, or otherwise. They would love nothing more than to make us all go away.

These people are more worried about their pronouns than actually getting something right. If you're an agent and you're not an activist, you had better become one, because these people sure as shit are, and they're relentless and clueless. NABIP had better be all over this.

This is the cast of commie clowns that wants to pay you the equivalent of an Uber driver for ALL the insanely taxing and tedious work.

Meet the Staff - Medicare Rights Center

Medicare Rights is a close-knit team dedicated to ensuring that older adults and people with disabilities get the quality, affordable health care they need. Get to know the Medicare Rights team.

www.medicarerights.org

These are also the same people bitching about "fOr ProFit" insurance, and here is their "FOR PROFIT" salaries for their "charity." I think these a-holes should take a 50% pay cut, just because. It must be nice to just sit around all day, collecting donations, while making $200k/year plus, and just muse about who should make less money in their career, and then write letters to try and make it happen. Maybe we should lobby for, and write letters to Congress, mandating that Medicare so-called "charities" not be able to make any profit. Maybe that will be our new crusade. Sounds fair to me....

Medicare Rights Center Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.

projects.propublica.org

 

[hockeyday]

That’s just a bs comment from a medicare rights group . Like the rest of the comments that were put on the website the last 2 months cms won’t listen . 90% of what cms proposed will be approved in the final ruling by late March early April . I’d comp when to $100/$50 I’d simply only answer very simple questions with existing clients. 90% of my answers would be “You need to call the carrier “ . I’d let my book dwindle to nothing . Honestly if marketing money goes away that’s ok with me . I don’t need my fmo to be honest but i do need connecture and if its under $300 a month I’ll pay for it .

Take a look at their 990 form on their website they have a number of employees making way north of 100k, some as high as 200k no one working more than 37 hours a week, there website reads like a scam fund raising rip off, looks like Medicare beneficiary pay to get help from them

 

[wehotex]

God, I cannot stand these Medicare group activist people with a passion. They are so criminally uneducated about what they're talking about, it's insane. These people are so lost and misguided, it's beyond sad.

$100-$150/year for Medicare Advantage plan renewals....LOL. These people are smoking crack. Good luck finding agents that are gonna work for those slave wages. Once you pay your agency, you'll be down to $75-$100, then there's taxes.

To be honest, I think even the current rate of $300/year is somewhat low. If they did this, you would literally have ZERO agents, overnight. I make almost as much on bs dental policies, and those are 1/10th the work.

I'm not running the equivalent of a charity. I don't even write PDP plans because they're so criminally low in pay and they're not worth the mountain of extra work and headaches. I just farm it out to another agency.

MA plans are a ton of work. When you account for all costs, fees, and taxes we incur, the wages would come out to that of a below-minimum-wage Uber driver.

These people think there's this huge incentive to push MA plans, and there just isn't. When all is said and done, the pay averages out to roughly the same. My statement last month came out to $25 and change for both my MA clients and my supplement clients.

One KEY thing these clueless groups always leave out when comparing MA pay to supplement pay.....there are so many different variables involved, you can't say that one makes more than the other. It depends on what the carrier pays for supplements, if they offer any supplement bonuses, etc. All supplements also need additional dental/vision/hearing and Part D policies.

That boosts the pay by an average of $14/month, which actually puts it ABOVE the renewals of MA plans, per month and year. But overall, it's just a peanuts small difference. It's not swaying any agent that writes both MA and supplements.

I write a good amount of Medicare Advantage plans because THEY'RE POPULAR IN MY AREA AND THEY ACTUALLY ARE GOOD. If there's one thing these morons need to finally get through their thick skulls, it would be that.

Everyone does not have the same wants, needs, desires, budgets, etc. That's why it's good to have OPTIONS with many different types of plans, both supplements and Medicare Advantage.

Also, 80% of the MA policies agents write are $300/year.....for an ENTIRE year, not $600.

It's like I keep saying, there's a war on ALL agents with these commie groups of Bernie Bros.....supplement, MA, or otherwise. They would love nothing more than to make us all go away.

These people are more worried about their pronouns than actually getting something right. If you're an agent and you're not an activist, you had better become one, because these people sure as shit are, and they're relentless and clueless. NABIP had better be all over this.

This is the cast of commie clowns that wants to pay you the equivalent of an Uber driver for ALL the insanely taxing and tedious work.

Meet the Staff - Medicare Rights Center

Medicare Rights is a close-knit team dedicated to ensuring that older adults and people with disabilities get the quality, affordable health care they need. Get to know the Medicare Rights team.

www.medicarerights.org

These are also the same people bitching about "fOr ProFit" insurance, and here is their "FOR PROFIT" salaries for their "charity." I think these a-holes should take a 50% pay cut, just because. It must be nice to just sit around all day, collecting donations, while making $200k/year plus, and just muse about who should make less money in their career, and then write letters to try and make it happen. A pay cut for them sounds fair to me....

Medicare Rights Center Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.

projects.propublica.org

One KEY thing these clueless groups always leave out when comparing MA pay to supplement pay.....there are so many different variables involved, you can't say that one makes more than the other.

They don’t realize the value and services that agents provide to the members. I can honestly say that I have built a solid retention for these companies by willingness to patiently answer their questions and apply for added benefits, even at times when inconvenient.
Meanwhile inflation has shot up 20% plus in the past 2 years while my commission has only gone up 6.5%.
Good Luck finding someone else who does as much as me or anyone else here in the Senior Forum.

 

[sman]

God, I cannot stand these Medicare group activist people with a passion. They are so criminally uneducated about what they're talking about, it's insane. Just completely lost.

$100-$150/year for Medicare Advantage plan renewals....LOL. These people are smoking crack. Good luck finding agents that are gonna work for those slave wages. Once you pay your agency, you'll be down to $75-$100, then there's taxes.

To be honest, I think even the current rate of $300/year is somewhat low. If they did this, you would literally have ZERO agents, overnight. I make almost as much on bs dental policies, and those are 1/10th the work.

I'm not running the equivalent of a charity. I don't even write PDP plans because they're so criminally low in pay and they're not worth the mountain of extra work and headaches. I just farm it out to another agency.

MA plans are a ton of work. When you account for all costs, fees, and taxes we incur, the wages would come out to that of a below-minimum-wage Uber driver.

These people think there's this huge incentive to push MA plans, and there just isn't. When all is said and done, the pay averages out to roughly the same. My statement last month came out to $25 and change for both my MA clients and my supplement clients.

One KEY thing these clueless groups always leave out when comparing MA pay to supplement pay.....there are so many different variables involved, you can't say that one makes more than the other. It depends on what the carrier pays for supplements, if they offer any supplement bonuses, etc. All supplements also need additional dental/vision/hearing and Part D policies.

That boosts the pay by an average of $14/month, which actually puts it ABOVE the renewals of MA plans, per month and year. But overall, it's just a peanuts small difference. It's not swaying any agent that writes both MA and supplements.

I write a good amount of Medicare Advantage plans because THEY'RE POPULAR IN MY AREA AND THEY ACTUALLY ARE GOOD. If there's one thing these morons need to finally get through their thick skulls, it would be that.

Everyone does not have the same wants, needs, desires, budgets, etc. That's why it's good to have OPTIONS with many different types of plans, both supplements and Medicare Advantage.

Also, 80% of the MA policies agents write are $300/year.....for an ENTIRE year, not $600.

It's like I keep saying, there's a war on ALL agents with these commie groups of Bernie Bros.....supplement, MA, or otherwise. They would love nothing more than to make us all go away.

These people are more worried about their pronouns than actually getting something right. If you're an agent and you're not an activist, you had better become one, because these people sure as shit are, and they're relentless and clueless. NABIP had better be all over this.

This is the cast of commie clowns that wants to pay you the equivalent of an Uber driver for ALL the insanely taxing and tedious work.

Meet the Staff - Medicare Rights Center

Medicare Rights is a close-knit team dedicated to ensuring that older adults and people with disabilities get the quality, affordable health care they need. Get to know the Medicare Rights team.

www.medicarerights.org

These are also the same people bitching about "fOr ProFit" insurance, and here is their "FOR PROFIT" salaries for their "charity." I think these a-holes should take a 50% pay cut, just because. It must be nice to just sit around all day, collecting donations, while making $200k/year plus, and just muse about who should make less money in their career, and then write letters to try and make it happen. Maybe we should lobby for, and write letters to Congress, mandating that Medicare so-called "charities" not be able to make any profit. Maybe that will be our new crusade. Sounds fair to me....

Medicare Rights Center Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.

projects.propublica.org

I'm just so glad the majority of them listed their pronouns. So important to know.

 

[GoPokes]

It appears that people on the outside are convinced that the reason MA is not saving CMS money, is because of the commissions to the agents, and the the FMO/IMO.

It also appears that the true culprit of the lack of savings is the MA Insurance companies. It is no secret that they have all the data on claims, that gets turned over to CMS for audit. There are a handful of tactics that can be utilized to make beneficiaries appear to be sicker than they may actually be, and as a result, they get a higher subsidy from CMS...

One would think that with the absence of original medicare fraudulent DME claims and such, the MA plans would be see a savings on that alone. However, the MA plans are actually costing CMS more than if they were on OM.