Insurance Agent Forum

[Independent_FL]

Agents,


Are you unhappy and disappointed in the level of service you receive from the national paramedical companies such as slow responses to your questions concerning your clients exams, no updates on the status of your clients, false promises of sending completed paperwork to you or your brokerage or slow scheduling of your clients exams? Are your clients being no showed on a regular bases, being stuck multiple times or just not being treated with the professionalism and courtesy they deserve?

Would you like knowing the examiner who sees your clients, being able to get timely answers for your questions directly from the examiner or reach an examiner after 5pm and on weekends should the need arise? Then it is time to look into using an independent examiner.

An independent/direct examiner is an experienced professionally trained examiner with a varied medical background. Direct examiners work directly with agents instead of being affiliated with one national company such as Portamedic, Examone etc... By obtaining approval through several different billing companies direct examiners are able to complete exams for just about any insurance company even if that company has an exclusive contract with that insurance company. All direct examiners undergo a background check by their billing company and carry liability insurance before billing approval is granted.

Direct examiners are small business operators that establish a mutually rewarding business relationship with the agent through excellent customer service and personal attention that you the agent and your clients deserve. The examiner seeing your client is a direct extension of you the agent so you deserve a quality examiner that is a direct reflection of the level of the quality service you provide to all your clients. For more information on why using a direct examiner instead of a national company for all your paramedical needs would be beneficial to you and your clients please email me at gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com <mailto:gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com>

[Independent_FL]

Agents,


Are you unhappy and disappointed in the level of service you receive from the national paramedical companies such as slow responses to your questions concerning your clients exams, no updates on the status of your clients, false promises of sending completed paperwork to you or your brokerage or slow scheduling of your clients exams? Are your clients being no showed on a regular bases, being stuck multiple times or just not being treated with the professionalism and courtesy they deserve?

Would you like knowing the examiner who sees your clients, being able to get timely answers for your questions directly from the examiner or reach an examiner after 5pm and on weekends should the need arise?. Does the idea of being able to schedule your client's exam while your sitting their with him/her appeal to you? Then it is time to look into using an independent examiner.

An independent/direct examiner is an experienced professionally trained examiner with a varied medical background. Direct examiners work directly with agents instead of being affiliated with one national company such as Portamedic, Examone etc... By obtaining approval through several different billing companies direct examiners are able to complete exams for just about any insurance company even if that company has an exclusive contract with that insurance company. All direct examiners undergo a background check by their billing company and carry liability insurance before billing approval is granted.

Direct examiners are small business operators that establish a mutually rewarding business relationship with the agent through excellent customer service and personal attention that you the agent and your clients deserve. The examiner seeing your client is a direct extension of you the agent so you deserve a quality examiner that is a direct reflection of the level of the quality service you provide to all your clients. For more information on why using a direct examiner instead of a national company for all your paramedical needs would be beneficial to you and your clients please email me at gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com <mailto:gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com>

[djs]

Actually, I'm very happy with my paramedical examiner. Thanks anyway!

[Independent_FL]

Happy to hear that your satisfied with the examiner you use. Do you use a national paramedical company or a direct examiner/independent paramedical company. I ask because if you do a tag search using the word paramedical you will see some posts talking about the benefits of using a direct examiner. Now of course if someone isn't happy with the service they get then I will sell my serivces but if I can not be of help I will gladly share some links to websites that will allow an agent to find a direct examiner just about anywhere. Not only am I promoting my service to agents I am also trying to be an advocate for direct examiners in general.

[djs]

I use a national paramedical company. Works extremely well.

My point was more that the forum has rules before you can solicit on the board. If you blatently violate these rules, I wonder what other rules you will violate.

Dan

[Independent_FL]

I have not broken any rules that I know of and neither do I purposely set out to break rules. I looked all over the website to see if there were rules about solicting business and I found none (I understand this info may be in a area that I may not have thought to look). I also emailed the moderator several weeks ago about advertising/solicting and never got a response. The most logical place to find this information would be under the FAQ sections which is blank and the privacy statement at the bottom of the website does not cover this area plus there are many solictions on the board from websites for agents to buying leads to programs to improve closing the sale. If you can tell me where to find the rules on solicting business on the website I will be happy to read it and follow whatever steps are required). Please do not question my ethics as a business person or person in general without having complete information. I stated in the post I was also just promoting the use of direct examiners in general more then I was solicting any direct business for myself because I feel along with many agents who agree we provide better service. Thank you for the dialog it is much appreciated and if you can show me where the rules about solicting business are located on the website I will be happy to complete all requirements. To everyone I may have offended please accept my apology and that there was no intentional disregard for the rules of this forum.

[LGilmore]

I don't know... I just had a para walk out of an appointment mid process and now the part II is F'd Up, so I am starting to really wonder if there are some alternatives to the big guys who provide s*** service, piss my clients off. Walk in their homes with muddy shoes and so on and so on..

Any body up in WA state? At this point I'm willing to listen. I do a good enough job wee weeing away my fair share of business. I don't need a para that adds to that aspect of my business.

[Independent_FL]

Lgilmore,


If you would like I can send you a couple of websites that have listings of direct examiners and if you still can not find one I might be able to get you a name and phone # through my contacts. I'd be happy to do this for you if you like just let me know.

[Independent_FL]

DJS,

I apologize if I offended you it was never my intention to break any of the formum rules. Before posting I searched for a listing of what the rules would be on advertising. Several weeks back I emailed the moderator asking what the rules were and never got a reply back and before posting I searched under the FAQ, about us and Privacy policy headings and found nothing. Only later after more searching(after you questioned my ethics & integrity) did I find the policy (under site announcements/updates) which states to be allowed to advertise a member must contribute worthy info to the group and be a participating member. First I do not feel my post was advertising but even with that said I feel it still satisfied both requirements. Not once in my post did I solicit business for myself. My post was more educational to let agents know they have a choice in who does their exams and that you do have an alternative to the national paramedical companies so that if you are receiving bad service you don't have to let it hurt your sales. The only reason I gave out my email address was so agents could contact me so I could give them info on how to find a direct examiner in their area. While I can understand the misunderstanding of my post I do not appreciate the questioning my ethics or integrity as a business person. I would never question your business ethics based on your only post in the forum it would be completely unfair to you for me to do so especially without never having had any personal one on one dealings with you. I joined the forum to give agents the opportunity to gain insight to another perspective of the business and I will gladly share my 13 years of experience and any info or answer questions that may come up as it relates to the paramedical exams aspect.

[Independent_FL]

Did you ever find out why the examiner just up and left in the middle of the exam?

[djs]

Hi Indy_FL

My apologies. If you asked prior to posting, I can definitely respect that.

I do agree, there should be something in the FAQ section related to soliciting. I also know how this can be well intentioned, but adding this doesn't pay the bills, so it's a 'when I get to it' level of priority.

Dan

[LGilmore]

"Did you ever find out why the examiner just up and left in the middle of the exam?"

Quote "bad vibes".

I read both the clients email and the paramed's report and while the truth lies somewhere in the middle most likely, I lean more towards the client. Not just because they are why I get paid.. but because the part II is coming back with all sorts of incomplete resonses (answers left off) so I am basically going back and doing her job. Meanwhile the part II is NOT considered complete by the carrier and they have refunded money and the client has interupted the letter as "you lied on your partII" when IN FACT they answered the questions... the answers weren't recorded. Hence the conflict of a yes answer and absol freaking loutly no detail (which should have been what the para wrote down).

So send me the information via the personal message part of this site. thanks

[ssobel3038]

Sounds great but do companies know you?

[Senateguy]

Where do you work???

I'm in the Tampa area and I would really like to link up with a Para-Med person so I can just bypass all this non-sense.

[Independent_FL]

Senateguy,


Right now I'm local in SWFL but I can cover exams from Tampa down to Naples and I know other examiners throughout the state. Email me gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com. I have a very experienced and reliable examiner that covers Tampa and the surrounding and one that covers Bradenton/Sarasota and the area.


Bryan

[Independent_FL]

Ssobel3038,


Right now I just market to local agents in my tri county area here in SWFL but I have the capability to get exams completed from Tampa to Naples and the ability to connect agents with other examiners throughout the state and the country. There are various examiner forums that examiners list their availability and location. Email me at gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com and I will be happy to give you the website addresses if your interested in working with a direct examiner. I would email you via private message but I do not have enough posts yet to be able to do that.


Bryan

[Independent_FL]

LGilmore,


I tried sending you the info you asked for by private message but I guess since I have not made 20 posts to the forum yet I can not use that option. Please email me at gulfcoastexams@yahoo.com and I will get that info to you. Are you in Seattle, Washington? I know of an excellent examiner that covers that area.

[Medicine Man]

My $0.02
I absolutely believe independents are the way to go and not just because I am one.

Most independents have a lot of experience and have been in this business for many years. We've learned the ropes and are good at what we do. We aren't easy to find; most search engines will find the Big 4 because they have the advertising budget and brand name recognition to get more hits. But if you think about it in terms of how much of your time goes into a typical sale, isn't it worth a few hours (if it ends up taking that long to find one) of your time to minimize the risk or incidence of lost sales?

The turnover in the Big 4's offices is huge, as is the turnover of examiners. Their excessive demands and low pay aren't incentives to stick with this as a full time job or as a career. Independents aren't going to get rich doing this, but they do get a bigger piece of the pie and they have complete control over how they run their business. Unlike the $8 an hour office worker or the underpaid examiner, they have a vested interest in doing a better job for you. They're less likely to make promises they can't keep (like the joke of preset appointments the Big 4 promise but frequently can't/don't deliver).

We're not necessarily going to be your Shangri-la, you'll still lose those clients who weren't going to take the policy anyway (and we'll continue to run the risk of being scapegoats because they didn't have the stones to say no to you, or tell you they were just shopping around) but we are still a much better choice than your other options.