Some Practical Advice to MA Agents

[retread]

Having endured the abuse from CMS over administration of MA plans for the past couple of years, I have made a business decision to move on to other products.

I suggest to all MA agents on this forum, that you consider doing something similar.

CMS is a government bureaucracy. They can get away with doing things a commercial enterprise would be sued for. If they decide to eliminate MA plans next week, there is no recourse. Consider how they have treated agents trying to serve the senior market over the past several years. A rational person would think they are planning on eliminating independent agents all together if you think about their past actions. They use the excuse that they are trying to rid the program of "unethical" agents, while making unethical edicts themselves. Cutting commissions after the sale and making the cut retroactive cannot be done in the commercial world. Only a government bureaucrat can do this and get away with it. They can publish "ethical" guidelines and do unethical things themselves because being called a hypocrit doesn't affect their pay one cent.

If you believe that the government is "here to help you", you are a lost cause. Others will realize that the effort to rid the MA program of "unethical" agents is a ruse to rid the program of ALL agents. From a management perspective, they have no idea how to lead. They have a hammer, and that's the only tool they know how to use. If you continue under their hand, don't complain of their abuse. If you are independent, make a decision to stay independent.

My suggestion is to begin now to change your business model that will serve a greater market segment than just Medicare. Even Med Sups are going to experience some changes shortly. Some of you already have made some business changes. Others just getting into this business need to carefully examine the aspect of putting your career in the hands of a government bureaucracy.

I don't mean just selling other health insurance, either. In my case, I am expanding into Life products as well, in order to diversify my business so that I will not be subject to the whim of government bureaucrats. It doesn't matter what other products you decide to sell, just diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. The current administration is going to play havoc with that basket.

If you continue to sell MA plans until they no longer exist, AND you have diversified, then their demise won't put you out of business. In the meantime, if some government bureaucrat puts the screws to you, you can tolerate them without the pain you will suffer otherwise.

Just my opinion.... your mileage may vary.

 

[insurance0707]

Great post retread. My sentiments also. I'm looking into other areas as well. I'll help my current clients, but I don't think I'll take too many new clients. Here is a great link that shows you what the changes to the med supps will be in June 2010. They're eliminating some of the plans. I was suprised to see Plan J will no longer be available. They are adding Plans M and N. These look pretty interesting. Page 6 & 7 go over the new plans. Page 14 has a chart that lists the new plans.

Here's the link

http://www.naic.org/documents/committees_b_senior_issues_medigap_impl_guide.pdf

 

[Russ]

Great post retread. My sentiments also. I'm looking into other areas as well. I'll help my current clients, but I don't think I'll take too many new clients. Here is a great link that shows you what the changes to the med supps will be in June 2010. They're eliminating some of the plans. I was suprised to see Plan J will no longer be available. They are adding Plans M and N. These look pretty interesting. Page 6 & 7 go over the new plans. Page 14 has a chart that lists the new plans.

Here's the link

http://www.naic.org/documents/committees_b_senior_issues_medigap_impl_guide.pdf

J was identical to F other than it had an at-home recovery benefit, which is being eliminated on all plans.

I'll be writing plans C, and F, the most.

Looks like plans...E,H,I and J are being eliminated.

 

[insurance0707]

M and N seem alot better than K & L. Plans N pays the Part A deductible and then gives the client $20 copays on office calls and $50 emergency. It doesn't pay the Part B ded. but for physical therapy, mri's, etc. it sound's like the plan picks up the other 20%. I bet the premiums will be lower on this plan and will probably be pretty popular. It's kind of a hyrbid Medicare supplement/Medicare Advantage

 

[Russ]

M and N seem alot better than K & L. Plans N pays the Part A deductible and then gives the client $20 copays on office calls and $50 emergency. It doesn't pay the Part B ded. but for physical therapy, mri's, etc. it sound's like the plan picks up the other 20%. I bet the premiums will be lower on this plan and will probably be pretty popular. It's kind of a hyrbid Medicare supplement/Medicare Advantage

Agree. It does look like a hybrid of a med-supp/MA.

And I agree the rates on N should be lower.

 

[Joe Moore]

Having endured the abuse from CMS over administration of MA plans for the past couple of years, I have made a business decision to move on to other products.

I suggest to all MA agents on this forum, that you consider doing something similar.

CMS is a government bureaucracy. They can get away with doing things a commercial enterprise would be sued for. If they decide to eliminate MA plans next week, there is no recourse. Consider how they have treated agents trying to serve the senior market over the past several years. A rational person would think they are planning on eliminating independent agents all together if you think about their past actions. They use the excuse that they are trying to rid the program of "unethical" agents, while making unethical edicts themselves. Cutting commissions after the sale and making the cut retroactive cannot be done in the commercial world. Only a government bureaucrat can do this and get away with it. They can publish "ethical" guidelines and do unethical things themselves because being called a hypocrit doesn't affect their pay one cent.

If you believe that the government is "here to help you", you are a lost cause. Others will realize that the effort to rid the MA program of "unethical" agents is a ruse to rid the program of ALL agents. From a management perspective, they have no idea how to lead. They have a hammer, and that's the only tool they know how to use. If you continue under their hand, don't complain of their abuse. If you are independent, make a decision to stay independent.

My suggestion is to begin now to change your business model that will serve a greater market segment than just Medicare. Even Med Sups are going to experience some changes shortly. Some of you already have made some business changes. Others just getting into this business need to carefully examine the aspect of putting your career in the hands of a government bureaucracy.

I don't mean just selling other health insurance, either. In my case, I am expanding into Life products as well, in order to diversify my business so that I will not be subject to the whim of government bureaucrats. It doesn't matter what other products you decide to sell, just diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. The current administration is going to play havoc with that basket.

If you continue to sell MA plans until they no longer exist, AND you have diversified, then their demise won't put you out of business. In the meantime, if some government bureaucrat puts the screws to you, you can tolerate them without the pain you will suffer otherwise.

Just my opinion.... your mileage may vary.

Ed,

It is hard to argue with anything you have said. You try to get a problem solved with a Plan or Medicare, and you the agent, are the one causing trouble in their estimation.

No dammit, it is not normally the agent causing problems, it is simply because the card doesn't work anymore, and the client and I simply want to fix the problem. I have even had them ask me if I knew why the card did not work. If I knew, I would not be calling them.

In a lot of people's minds, every health care worker, social services worker, senior counselor, home office employee (maybe a temporary worker), relative, friend, pastor, and person on the street has more knowledge than a trained, certified agent. All this knowledge has been gained without any training or certification.

All of the above folks are exempt from problems with telling people something wrong about these plans, except the Agent. A lot of times the Agent is risking his livelihood for a problem instigated by one of the above folks. I had a Social Worker tell me one time she was basically out to get any agent who would dare put someone in a Medicare Advantage Plan.

I will admit early on in these programs, there was abuse of the system by maybe 10% of the agents, but the new rules scared most of the real problem agents away. I just hope they haven't "thrown the baby out with the bathwater" by getting rid of honest, sincere and client oriented agents like yourself.

A lot of agents have been smacked around very badly by CMS for no reason. I can imagine the "New Enrollee Pay" to agents could have been rectified very easily, when the client was approved. One more step could have been to see whether they were coming out of an old plan, and notify the new plan, when they were approved for the new plan. End of problem.

But, where are we now? We are in our 5th month of AGENTS NOT BEING PAID, for what I see as no apparent good reason. If you were 5 months behind, you would be getting foreclosure notices, your car repossessed, your lights and heat turned off, etc. I do not know of how you would qualify for any bailout money.

If agents all either quit or are kicked out of the mix with these plans, bless the clients trying to get any real guidance from anyone. Re-think your thoughts about cutting completely away. You may not realize it, but in the future you will probably really be needed.

Expanding into Life Insurance is a great idea. If I can help you, let me know. All I am saying is, do not completely abandon what you already know you are good at. The problems have not been created by you being in the process. Think about what the process would have been like without decent and caring agents, like yourself. There would be a lot more problems than there are now.

Joe

 

[Insuranceman]

There could be big opportunities in 2010 when the MA plans cheapen their benefits and increase premium. I would like to know what plan M & N's premiums are going to be.

 

[insurance0707]

Another bright move by the government is making these plans available in June of 2010. It looks like to me Plans M and N will be a good option for some of the MA people if they price them fairly low. Of course if there in an MA plan they won't be able to take it out in June when they become available, they'll have to wait until November's AEP.

 

[G.Gordon]

There could be big opportunities in 2010 when the MA plans cheapen their benefits and increase premium. I would like to know what plan M & N's premiums are going to be.

The question is "IF" a company even chooses to sell them. In Mutual of O's release on the changes coming next year they said something like: "Mutual has not made a decision on if they will even offer plans M or N."

Just like K and L it is going to be price, price and price. If the premium savings does not justify the out of pocket risk then why would someone take it? For example most of my clients are on Plan G where the premium is approx. $200-300/yr cheaper than a C or F. Keep the $200-300 and pay your own deductible is what I tell the client. For the few companies that sell K and L their price was 80-90% of what a plan D or G was available for.

 

[insurance0707]

United Health Care has been a company that tries to make all of the plans available, it should be interesting to see if they'll offer it and at what price. In Mi just to give you an example of what they were charging for Plans K and L, their rate for K was $55.82 and L was $78.22. Their Plan F is $122.67