Cold Calling Seniors

Insuranceman

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Does any one have any advise on cold calling seniors by phone and setting appointments for Medicare suppliment plans?
 
From Perfectchoice (in the discussion about Part C)

109th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 1798

To amend titles XI and XVIII of the Social Security Act to prohibit outbound call telemarketing to individuals eligible to receive benefits under title XVIII of such Act.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

September 29, 2005

Mr. CORZINE (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. LAUTENBERG, and Ms. STABENOW) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To amend titles XI and XVIII of the Social Security Act to prohibit outbound call telemarketing to individuals eligible to receive benefits under title XVIII of such Act.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Medicare Do Not Call Act'.

SEC. 2. TELEMARKETING PROHIBITED.

(a) PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLANS- Section 1860D-4(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-l04(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(5) PROHIBITION ON TELEMARKETING.

`(A) IN GENERAL- A PDP sponsor offering a prescription drug plan shall be prohibited from conducting outbound call telemarketing (as defined in subparagraph (B)) for the purpose of soliciting enrollment into such a plan under this part.

`(B) OUTBOUND CALL TELEMARKETING DEFINED-

`(i) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in clause (ii), for purposes of this paragraph, the term `outbound call telemarketing' means a telephone call initiated by a telemarketer--

`(I) to induce the purchase of goods or services; or

`(II) to solicit a charitable contribution.

`(ii) CATALOG MAILINGS NOT INCLUDED IN DEFINITION OF OUTBOUND CALL TELEMARKETING- Such term does not include--

`(I) the mailing of a catalog; or

`(II) the receipt or return of a telephone call initiated by a customer in response to such mailing.'.

(b) Medicare Advantage Organizations- Section 1851(h) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-21(h)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(6) PROHIBITION ON TELEMARKETING- A Medicare Advantage organization offering a Medicare Advantage plan shall be prohibited from conducting outbound call telemarketing (as defined in section 1860D-4(a)(5)(B)) for the purpose of soliciting enrollment into such a plan under this part.'.

(c) Criminal Penalties for Fraudulent Telemarketing- Section 1128B of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320a-7b) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(g) Whoever knowingly and willfully engages in deceptive or abusive telemarketing acts or practices (as defined in part 310.3 and part 310.4, respectively, of title 16, Code of Federal Regulations), or makes any false , statement or representation of a material fact while conducting outbound call telemarketing (as defined in section 1860D-4(a)(5)(B)) with respect to a prescription drug plan offered by a PDP sponsor under part D of title XVIII, a Medicare Advantage plan offered by a Medicare Advantage organization under part C of such title, or who falsely alleges to be conducting outbound call telemarketing (as so defined) with respect to either such a plan, shall be guilty of a felony and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than $25,000 or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.'.

(d) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
 
Insuranceman said:
Does any one have any advise on cold calling seniors by phone and setting appointments for Medicare suppliment plans?

When cold calling seniors don't attempt to sell the supplement but the apointment. Unless you are actually trying to sell supplements over the phone? Never did and wouldn't imagine it would work very well. Yet to make an apointment is usually a fairly easy thing to do when dealing in the senior market, matters how much qualifying you want to do.
 
I have had great success with Med Supps when calling on the phone. Although I don't try to "sell" it over the phone, I get the information that I feel is necessary to make an appointment with a qualified buyer.

I attempt to find out who they have their insurance with now, what plan they have and how much they are paying for it. (I usually know when they had their last increase and about how much it was.) If they won't tell me the premium I can usually figure it out based on their current company.

When I do make the appointment I know that I have better than a 70% chance of making a sale. It is usually better than 90% if I get all the info.

If they ask, I tell them what the premium will be if they take a policy from me. According to the way I was "trained" to sell insurance I do "everything wrong".

I usually have a fair distance to drive to an appointment and I don't want to waste either their time or mine. There is no sense going if I can't save them money. It is usually only money they are interested in.

People turning 65 have never been a good group for me to spend a lot of time with unless they are a referral. Ages 68 to 75 have always been more productive.

I'm still not convinced that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are the best option for a lot of seniors. In my experience, Seniors get way too excited when they think they are going to save a ton of money and that is the only thing they base their decision on and the only thing they remember no matter how carefully you explain it to them.

Maybe in a few years when more doctors understand and accept MA plans, but I have run into a lot of doctors that either say they don't know enough about it or are not accepting it. However, I work in rural Missouri, I'm sure it is much different in the large metro areas.
 
Frank Stastny said:
I have had great success with Med Supps when calling on the phone. Although I don't try to "sell" it over the phone, I get the information that I feel is necessary to make an appointment with a qualified buyer.

I attempt to find out who they have their insurance with now, what plan they have and how much they are paying for it. (I usually know when they had their last increase and about how much it was.) If they won't tell me the premium I can usually figure it out based on their current company.

When I do make the appointment I know that I have better than a 70% chance of making a sale. It is usually better than 90% if I get all the info.

If they ask, I tell them what the premium will be if they take a policy from me. According to the way I was "trained" to sell insurance I do "everything wrong".

I usually have a fair distance to drive to an appointment and I don't want to waste either their time or mine. There is no sense going if I can't save them money. It is usually only money they are interested in.

People turning 65 have never been a good group for me to spend a lot of time with unless they are a referral. Ages 68 to 75 have always been more productive.

I'm still not convinced that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are the best option for a lot of seniors. In my experience, Seniors get way too excited when they think they are going to save a ton of money and that is the only thing they base their decision on and the only thing they remember no matter how carefully you explain it to them.

Maybe in a few years when more doctors understand and accept MA plans, but I have run into a lot of doctors that either say they don't know enough about it or are not accepting it. However, I work in rural Missouri, I'm sure it is much different in the large metro areas.

I work much the same way as you Frank, which apparantly, is wrong--But has been working for me for 6 years (6 months after leaving United American)

I do not go on an appt unless I have a 75% chance of a sale--which is either accomplished by saving someone money or increasing their benefits.

I do cold call--but I am very generic about it and only do it to get an appointment to discuss health plan options.

I also outsource telemarketing but haven't seen much come back from that yet--will give it 60 days and see what happens.

I also do direct mail--self-mailers with return of 2.75% response and close about 50% of those

As needed I also do postcard mailings myself to T65 and usually get about 2% from that but 90% closing ratio[/list]
 
As for MA plans over med supps...I have about 100 MA clients and have had maybe 5 cancel because their Doc wouldn't accept it. 75 of those 100 have been on the MA plan for a year now and still no problems.

Time will tell...
 
perfectchoice said:
As for MA plans over med supps...I have about 100 MA clients and have had maybe 5 cancel because their Doc wouldn't accept it. 75 of those 100 have been on the MA plan for a year now and still no problems.

Time will tell...

In CA there is the Blue Cross Freedom One no-premium MA plan which uses the regular BC PPO... and just about every doc and his/her dog are members.

This may be anecdotal evidence but I noticed with my wife this weekend who had to go to the doc-inbox several times, when the gal behind the desk saw a Blue Cross card (or any private insurance card) as opposed to the standard Medicare card she was much nicer. I think they think they will get paid more or faster. Go figure.

Al
 
"Mr. Jones, this is Bob Levine. I'm a Medicare specialist, here in Decatur. The reason for my call was to ensure you fully understood what enhancements have been added to Medicare, to your advantage.

Let me ask you, did you receive the Medicare and You 2007 book?

(if yes)

Have you had a chance to read through it?

(if no)

Let's do this. If I may, let's get together for 15 minutes to go through the book, and explain what what Medicare has done to help you this year. I will make you two promises: 1. I am not here to take you off Medicare, and 2. you are under no obligation to sign up for anything."

I sell Medicare Advantage plans, and this works 80% of the time.

(if no)

Well, I have a copy with me, and when we meet, we can call and get you your very own copy, because you will need it to reference this year."
 
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