Comments on: Breaking news! Medicare Advantage 2009 Commission Update (4) – CMS Rescinds October 8th, 2008 Medicare Advantage Commission Guidance, Will Issue new Regulatory Action Next Week (Week of October 27th – 31st) – DEVELOPING

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:43:40 +0000

To all:

Can anyone get a strait answer from Anthem or Wellpoint in reference to renewal comissions on MA business?

Seems like payment is very inconsistant depending upon members prior carrier. Sometimes Anthem pays if a policy is moved from ASA to ASA+ and sometimes they dont.

Help!

By: mike

mike — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:43:00 +0000

united health care and humana teamed up to stab us in the back and lobbied to cms causing this huge cut in comissions as well as this split comission tying up our money for 5 months and counting while drawing intrest on our hard earned dollars and both united healeh care and humana lie and say that cms is to blame.

By: W DAVE

W DAVE — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:34:16 +0000

Within the Medicare Advanage Arena the stakes have never been higher for seniors who do not understand this extremely complex array of deductibles, copays, coinsurance , premiums, networks and the Insurance Company’s ability to change these plans any time during the year (drop prescription medications from their formulary) for example. However, the Insurance Companies proposes commissions that they think are fair, for agents managing the complexity of these plans and helping their clients with claims, enrollment problems, Billing
(Bank Draft administration), coordination of benefits, since we can’t really control the effective date anymore, this is controlled by CMS, understanding the Variability built into plans that resemble a moving target from month to month year to year. From my experience Medicare Advanage plans easily take 400 to 600% more time to service than at any Medicare Supplement worst case scenario, I have ever seen.

The home office people that agents have access to are not knowledgeable or proficient enough to assist agents at the level they need , they are trained to ” talk off ” the issues rather than solve them, as they do not share data bases, which would give them the ability see the entire process, but segmented demographics within their own company, as a job well done for them is simply sending an e-mail to a department to attempt correction of the problem, with no follow-up or follow through!
I’m thinking, we don’t get paid near enough! A lot of times we don’t even get paid , because of bad accounting on behalf of the insurance company themselves. Is there light at the end of the tunnel or an oncoming train, you tell me?

By: Medicare Advisors

Medicare Advisors — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:21:46 +0000

Thanks for keeping us informed.

By: Don Poole

Don Poole — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:12:36 +0000

Doctors, Firefighters, Police, Soldiers. They are all public service professionals. The Fire industry, the Police industry, the Military industry…ludicrous. Ah, but the Healthcare industry. There is something we Americans accept as a natural state of affairs. Making money off of sick people.

Doctors should manage health care, not insurance companies, not lawyers, not pharmaceutical companies. Doctors today are legally bound to order tests for things they know they can’t fix. They are tempted to order procedures that earn them large fees when no procedure at all would result in the same morbidity and mortality. Medical schools are ashamed that their graduates have to choose specialist careers instead of general practice.

Listen to former Governor of Oregon John Kitzhaber (a former emergency room doctor) when he tells you that health care is not a business. Doctors want immediate reform of a broken system.

Argue all you want about commissions, overhead, advertising, decile numbers, drug lunch talks, insurance compliance officers, medical seminars, nursing home employee pay scales, whether a $2,000 stent will give a patient an extra month of questionable quality of life. Then ask yourself a simple question. What will our grandchildren inherit? They are the only stakeholders.

By: Robert G

Robert G — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:48:31 +0000

Can’t anyone see this is Medicare’s way of taking care of Medicare? The more Medicare Advantage plans, the less need for personnel in Medicare (to take care of billing, etc). So Medicare has done what it can to keep the payrolls fat – make the approval process run through Medicare. And they took it one step further and made the approval to pay commission run through them, adding another layer. So Medicare has decided to keep the payrolls fat with MA here and if they succeed in getting it eliminated (stiff regulation, impossible commission schedules) then they can go back to becoming a large payroll claims processing and billing center. Medicare does what’s best for Medicare – not Seniors or anyone else…

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:47:13 +0000

Allen, In reply to your comment. You may be right in a way in Medicare administrating the part D but what you are talking about is also socialized healthcare and not giving seniors a choice. I know drug companies make a good profit on their drugs but they also spend millions to develop them with strict government guidelines. As far as the part C plans that Insurance agents like you seem not to like and would rather sell them a supplement, the price of these are getting to expensive for them to afford. They would be on just original Medicare and a lot of these people would just not go to the Dr. unless it was an emergency. I have helped many a senior go through the maze of plans to find what would be best for them at this time. The way the new commission schedule is right now, I may not be able to afford to stay in business and help someone choose what would be best for them. Humana is trying to push the independents out of business in limiting commissions and saying a captive agent is better. Give me a break! They pay their agents a salary, benefits, office, supplies, marketing and also a commission to sell their plans. Humana agents are making about $500 a sale with all that included and they are this year getting paid a new commission to move their PFFS clients to PPO plans. This is the first year they have done this. In the past they only got the renewal since it was just a move to another plan. Is this churning? Not really because they made their PFFS a piece of crap so that clients almost have to get out of that plan. Smart business but not good for the clients. Now for in idependent agent they pay a whopping $160! WooHoo!

I am doing a service for my clients and the fact that you believe that I should not worry about my pay is ridiculous. I make sure that I am doing the best for my clients and spend on average almost 2 hours a clint to mae sure they get the right plan and understand it.

It seems like you think that the government knows best and should dictate our choices. Welcome Big Brother and I feel sorry for my children. Just look at how our government is running things at this time. Awesome!

I do worry about who I am doing a service for everyday!

By: Allen Harkins SC

Allen Harkins SC — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:19:56 +0000

It is pretty obvious that CMS does not want Medicare Advantage plans sold. Read between the lines. This year for those agents who abuse seniors you could loose your license, pay large fines and go to jail. Seems to me that CMS has a problem with these plans and how they are run. I for one do not care for these plans either. But you do what you want. CMS should administer part d, not private insurance companies. The extra money spent on Advantage plans could be used in a way that would really give Seniors better benifits. If CMS ran part d they could #1 Get better prices on the prescriptions. #2.Do away with the donut hole. #3. Lower the premium on part d.#4 Lower the copays for all drugs. CMS would not be in this for their profit, Private insurance companies are in this for the profit, no other reason. I believe what I just described is the way things will hopefully be real soon. So don’t worry about your commission. Worry about the people you are suppose to be doing a service for.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:53:48 +0000

Where do we get our voice heard? Why don’t we have a chance to share our side on these situations and laws. We are dealing with Gov’t. that doesn’t know the difference between what Tier 1 and Tier2., let alone how the whole process of the MA’s work. I beleive there is a hidden agenda behind all of this. It’s not just trying to put us out of bussiness, I think we should switch jobs for a week and we all would better understand how it works. They as government don;t have Medicare and S.S. for retirement, they have their own plans. What’s that all about?

By: Armand

Armand — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:28:13 +0000

I like most of you have spent more hours researching, comparing, studing and certifing then I have talking to existing and possible new clients in the last month. If I had to put a dollar value on the preparation, maketing and the unproductive [ no commisions ] during this time it would be in the thousands. All of us who have been part of this market know that there is an inordinant amount of time just managing these clients. I have made it my bussines to take all my client calls. I have met them at doctors offices, called their children and reviewed the plans. I have even gone to the pharmacy and picked up their prescriptions. I help them sign up for state funded low income drug plans.
I have repaired garage doors, gone to the grocery store, picked up family members. I have been in the insurance bussiness since I was 21, and now I’m 52. I saw my own mother and father struggle with health issues. My mother had alzhiemers and my father had heart issues. They both died within 13 months of each other. For the last 5 years I drove 160 miles once and sometimes twice a week to get them to appointments, shopping or just a day out. I know that seniors reley on us for our judgement our friendship and our compassion.
Tell me CMS….how do I bill my client for my services, or as it seems you would prefer should I just mail them a letter and tell the to contact you……Big Brother.