6/16/09 UPDATE – See my most recent update here. . .
5/28/09 – UPDATE: See my latest blog post here. . .the saga continues, unfortunately.
5/5/09 – UPDATE: I’ve seen the letter from CMS dated 4/29 which advises the companies that they would be able to download the report on “New to Medicare” and “New to Medicare Advantage” enrollees so that the companies can pay the balance of the initial commissions. This also verified that only 1/1/09 effectives would be on the May 1st report and that they would be delivering the 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1 effectives through out the month of May. Then, starting in June and every month thereafter, they will be providing the report on the third week of the month. Example, 3rd week of June for the May effectives. From the description of the file, it seems rather straitforward, however, the insurance companies will need to do a bit of computer programming to get the first commissions out. After the initial programming, they should be able to pay the balance of initial commissions rather easily. I’m guessing the whole process should take no more than 2 weeks before you start seeing commissions on companies who pay direct. For companies who pay Ritter, we’ll forward the balance of initial commissions on our first run following receipt of payment which should be June 10th.
4/30/09 – EDITOR’S NOTE: If you read all comments below, you will see that the original date of April 28th has shifted to May 1st. Following is the original post from 4/19:
I just heard that this was announced by CMS last Friday, April 17th. I’ve only heard this from one company so far, so I’ll try to verify with some other carriers. The date for release of the payment information from CMS to the Insurance companies is April 28th.
As of Friday morning, I had heard from 5 companies that there was “no news” with regard to the second commission payment. Given that this news was just supposed to have broken, that might make some sense. Also, this is the first “exact date” I’ve seen, which is encouraging.
I’d expect that most companies will need a week or two to format the information and pay the agents, so I’d expect commissions to start flowing by mid May.
As I hear any more confirmation of this, I’ll add to this posting or add a Comment to the posting below.
Craig
Now it is almost March, 2010 and BCBST is not paying as they should, as I have sveral MAPD deals written back in Oct 2009 and have yet to be paid.
They are using the same old excuse, blaming the other guy (CMS), and I suppose If we contact CMS, they will blame it on BCBST.
I have been doing Medicare Advanage since it started and have never been paid correctly, except for the first year, Medicare Advantage started.
It all getting worst, not better. This Agent is out of this business, after this year. No more waiting 6-12 months to get paid.
Good luck and God bless
Dave,
Same problem for me with BCBS specifically Highmark. Horrible at paying commissions. They don’t separate inital from true up and no way to track commission payments or app status on their broker portal. They keep bankers hours also and if you call them you better call before 4 p.m. or they will be closed. Also, they pay less than everyone other than Humana. If not for their provider network, I would never use them.
[...] First of all, let me define a couple of terms. First off, there is what I’ll be calling the “Old Report” which CMS issued on April 27th. See my original blog post here on that. [...]
Did any other agents get this email from their Carriers?
“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began to send UnitedHealthcare Medicare Solutions new files containing the corrected data related to initial-year commission payments last night, Thursday, June 4, 2009. CMS has indicated that additional data files are forthcoming.
A special commission cycle will occur over the weekend of June 13 based on all data received as of noon CT Wednesday, June 10. Barring any issues, electronic statements will be available for viewing on http://www.UnitedHealthProducers.com on Monday, June 15. Paper checks and statements will be mailed on Tuesday, June 16 and electronic funds transfers (EFTs) will post on Wednesday, June 17. These initial-year commission payments are for all products, except for stand-alone Part D.
Initial-year commission payments are based solely on CMS data. All other commissions will remain at the renewal rate. At this time, CMS has not offered an appeal or escalation process. Please be assured that we continue to make every effort to pay commissions appropriately, and we appreciate your patience and cooperation thus far.
LaToya:
I hadn’t see this, this is great news. . .I suppose that finally the corrected files are available.
Craig
I wonder if American Progressive is doing this too… ANYONE WORK FOR A.P. THAT HAS HEARD ANYTHING??? I really think they are full of it they give me a different story everytime i call… If other companies are paying their agents why not A.P.?
Wally,
Was wondering if you ever got paid your HMO commissions last friday… I plan to contact A.P. to see what the word is on commissions being paid this week.. Please let me know
I just had basically given up on getting paid what is due to me.
I contacted channel 2 news this morning and they wanted to know how many agents were effected by WellCare not paying our commissions in Georgia.
Until we have a large enough outcry they don’t think our stories matter.
So please any agents in Georgia that is being treated unfairly by Any of the Insurance Agencies we wrote for please let me know.
They will not air our story..until our voice is louder.
I wish I was in GA so I could do this. I encourage any agents in Georgia to contact LaToya and put together a combined letter just oulining the facts. Don’t use emotion. Lay it out like a bulleted list and all sign it, even if you have to fax the signature page around to get the signatures. Put your insurance license number under your name.
I hope that at least 25, 50 would be better, agents in Georgia will get behind this. If you can get the story ran locally, one of the nationals may pick it up.
Again – just the facts. Keep the emotion out of it.
I wish you well.
Hey Eric,
I’m a career agent with Universal American (Today’s Options)in Texas. We have several HMO markets down here. I was told verbally that we are going to get paid on our HMO business this Friday (the company is Select Care of TX) and Texan Plus, but that our PFFS (Pyramid) commissions aren’t going to be untill next week. Its hard to say. They didn’t say weather that was just for 1/1 effectives or all through AEP.
This company is a little funny in that all the enrollments go through the Houston office but then commissions get paid out through the respective companies (pyramid, Amerprog, etc.)
I would think that Texas has been handling the CMS file and that then they send that enrollment data to the commission dept of the carriers. So I don’t know why American Progressive would be entering any data. Maybe they just told you that because at the end of the day its all the same, someone has to enter the data.
I don’t understand why HMO would get paid first and PFFS later. The CMS data file doesn’t diferentiate between them. Does anyone have any information on Universal American Commissions?
Wally,
Yeah A.P. did mention that they were doing the HMOs first and the PFFS later. If what you say is true, i can handle waiting one more week to get paid i just hope to god that will be the end of this…
I spoke with American Progressive’s (Today’s Options) commissions dept. last Friday (5/22/2009) I was informed that they were still inputting data from the list they received from CMS the lady i spoke with said that A.P. should be finishing inputting the data by the 1st of June so that commissions would be payable. Still its hard to believe considering they said the same thing to me last month…. Anyone hear anything else about A.P.?