Medicare Seminar

[axeman462]

I am starting up medicare seminars this may and plan on having one a month until open enrollment....IT will be a sales seminar covering A B C and D ... talking about what each part covers and then going into Med Sup F/G and Coventry MAPD .... i plan on having somewhere around 10-20 people to start off Any pointers would be great... i am advertising by direct mail to those that are turning 65 in the next three months and have a 30 sec commercial that will be starting 10 days before and running 3 times a day for 3 days a week... and have a call- commercial that i do twice a week on local talk radio ..... Any pointers on the presentation would be great or hints on getting the most people there would be great... Thanks in Advance

i do medicare seminars regularly myself.
You dont need to do the commercials, its a waste of money. the mailers alone will get you the people you need. If I send out 600 mailers, I on average get between 6-9 people to show up at the seminar, then sell about half of them.

As for the presentation, I personally do not go into any details about the plans, or prices. I make them sit down with me one-on-one for that info. If they ask "why?" I tell them its "per HIPPA and CMS regulations" that usually satisfies them enough to sit down with me for more info. During the presentation I talk about medicare by itself with out the medigap policy. then cover what in general and how a Medicare Advantage policy works. And then in general cover Pt. D plans (do not cover any specifics, or specific companies or plans). Many people have specific questions about their drugs for Pt. D, I use this an opportunity to book an appointment "to go over it in more detail (again, because of HIPPA and CMS regulations)"

 

[anonymous1]

i do medicare seminars regularly myself.
You dont need to do the commercials, its a waste of money. the mailers alone will get you the people you need. If I send out 600 mailers, I on average get between 6-9 people to show up at the seminar, then sell about half of them.

i already have like 70-100 commercials banked at my local talk radio so I figured i will use them .... thats not an extra cost at this point ... in the future we will see

As for the presentation, I personally do not go into any details about the plans, or prices. I make them sit down with me one-on-one for that info. If they ask "why?" I tell them its "per HIPPA and CMS regulations" that usually satisfies them enough to sit down with me for more info. During the presentation I talk about medicare by itself with out the medigap policy. then cover what in general and how a Medicare Advantage policy works. And then in general cover Pt. D plans (do not cover any specifics, or specific companies or plans). Many people have specific questions about their drugs for Pt. D, I use this an opportunity to book an appointment "to go over it in more detail (again, because of HIPPA and CMS regulations)"

Thank you for that advice... do you register these as educational or as an informal sales?? this one is currently registered as a formal sales event with coventry so i from what i can see i do need to go through the Sum of Benifits..as an informal event i do not... i do appreciate the insight on how to approach this in the future... Also i thinking of doing these on a Sat morning from now on.. once a month hoping for a larger pull any thoughts on that would be great too

 

[Justin Bilyj]

i do medicare seminars regularly myself.
You dont need to do the commercials, its a waste of money. the mailers alone will get you the people you need. If I send out 600 mailers, I on average get between 6-9 people to show up at the seminar, then sell about half of them.

As for the presentation, I personally do not go into any details about the plans, or prices. I make them sit down with me one-on-one for that info. If they ask "why?" I tell them its "per HIPPA and CMS regulations" that usually satisfies them enough to sit down with me for more info. During the presentation I talk about medicare by itself with out the medigap policy. then cover what in general and how a Medicare Advantage policy works. And then in general cover Pt. D plans (do not cover any specifics, or specific companies or plans). Many people have specific questions about their drugs for Pt. D, I use this an opportunity to book an appointment "to go over it in more detail (again, because of HIPPA and CMS regulations)"

Great post right here. How many seminars do you put on in a month? What locations do you like best?

 

[axeman462]

Thank you for that advice... do you register these as educational or as an informal sales?? this one is currently registered as a formal sales event with coventry so i from what i can see i do need to go through the Sum of Benifits..as an informal event i do not... i do appreciate the insight on how to approach this in the future... Also i thinking of doing these on a Sat morning from now on.. once a month hoping for a larger pull any thoughts on that would be great too

I average doing one or two a month. I do not register with any companies because I do not talk about any specific products at the seminars. I use my seminars strictly as a prospecting technique (mainly because i hate the phone)
Also, I find tuesdays and thursdays seem to be the best day of the week for them. Not entirely sure why, but this is my guess: Fridays people head out of town for weekend. Mondays people are in a bad mood because its monday (or recouping from the weekend) and Wednesday evening people go to church. which naturally leave tuesday and thursdays open.

I also, i do mine at public libraries, I register them as educational non-profit events (I know, that is not entirely true ) The reason why, is because it keeps the cost down.

 

[Newby]

i do medicare seminars regularly myself.
You dont need to do the commercials, its a waste of money. the mailers alone will get you the people you need. If I send out 600 mailers, I on average get between 6-9 people to show up at the seminar, then sell about half of them.

As for the presentation, I personally do not go into any details about the plans, or prices. I make them sit down with me one-on-one for that info. If they ask "why?" I tell them its "per HIPPA and CMS regulations" that usually satisfies them enough to sit down with me for more info. During the presentation I talk about medicare by itself with out the medigap policy. then cover what in general and how a Medicare Advantage policy works. And then in general cover Pt. D plans (do not cover any specifics, or specific companies or plans). Many people have specific questions about their drugs for Pt. D, I use this an opportunity to book an appointment "to go over it in more detail (again, because of HIPPA and CMS regulations)"

You are probably flying under the radar and MAY never have a secret shopper turn you in. But what you are doing is educational seminars and have strict rules. You can not offer to set appointments or pass out business cards or scope of appointments at those. I put on one a month for the local hospital. The hospital heavily promotes them. Mine are always attended by compliance people.

 

[anonymous1]

One of our hospitals and ship (senior health program puts one on. I think I'll approach the other hospital That's a good idea thx for that no way would I ever put on an edu way to many ways to get in trouble and from what I read you have to report edu ones to cms anyways so might as well make it a sales We are over 20% saturated in our area. It's a very viable option here most new retires are use to the copay schedule from their major meds and we have zero premium in our area so they are like why not do that add dental and a heart attack stroke cancer or hospital indemnity made a pretty good day

 

[jbage007]

I'm aghast at the lack of understanding by agents of CMS Rules & Regs.

Truly mindboggling.

 

[Guest]

Have no fear Jbage007, All bad agents and uneducated agents hang themselves eventually.

 

[midwestbroker]

Newby is on the same track I am on...

You may be free and clear now, and if you are advertising that you will be covering MAPD or Part D plans you will have to register the seminars. If they are Medicare overview and Medicare Supp seminars, you do not have to register them, but you also cannot go into detail about MA or Part D.

For stuff shoppers are looking for the 2012 CMS shopper report is attached.

 

[Guest]

Waking up an old thread:

I am stumped on how to advertise seminars. I have an office with a seminar room, I want to make a calendar with all my seminar on them and do a newspaper insert. UHC says no, you cannot list several companies on a calendar, you must advertise each company separately.
I need ideas on how to advertise and to figure out this confusion.