It’s official! CMS announced a few hours ago that they will be REVERSING their prior guidance and ALL 2009 enrollments into Medicare Advantage from Original Medicare and a PDP will be paid INITIAL commission.
CMS will be issuing clarification about the implementation and timing of the new files, but the new guidance on 2009 is 100% clear!
Craig: My heartfelt thanks for providing this forum for us to share info, experiences, opinions & frustrations. I agree with Jim Collins. Been at this for over 38 years. Too bad the “house dogs” that are “up stream” don’t/won’t listen to me (age 69 & on a MA plan for 2 years now), but most of them with their “CLU’S, MBA’S etc, have never sat through a senior enrollment, or even, for that matter, “certifed”! All they are interested in is “bottom line sales”, in order to collect their bonuses and or options. We need to hang togther and stay well ahead of the “power curve” for 2010. Good Luck to all MA agents. Remember, we are needed, if not by the companies, the many Senior Medicare enrollees, who depend upon us! TMR
I stopped selling 2009 plans early since it was obvious that
when the pffs plans and others are switched to manged care. that our renewal commissions will probably be discontnued and open to any sale.
All:
There were a number of posts going back and forth which I took down. I don’t feel the subject was productive to the website and was irrelevant to this blog post. As Brenda mentioned, anything you post on a public website (whether this one or any other) will uniquely identify your computer via IP address, even if you post “anonymously”. I’m not saying this to scare anybody, but this a just a fact.
Generally, my intention is not to censure posts, but I don’t see any benefit to anyone to leave these public.
Craig,
I just got off the phone with ‘UHC help desk’ and that person said CMS has not yet decided if we agents will get paid Initial Commissions for MA’s. I was just floored to hear this at 5pm 7/7/09.
Have you or anyone else heard any updates?????
Joe,
I would imagine that whoever you spoke to just wasn’t up to date on the latest info. United Health, Coventry and Wellcare all sent me the same email basically that CMS reversed its decision and we will be paid on OM + PDP. Call them again and see if you get a different answer from the next person you speak to.
Since they reverse this decision it would be great if they would also correct this other problem. CMS cut our commissions from $400-500 to basically $200 on current MC beneficiary) because they were going to give us better renewals (renewal matching commissions) up to $200 per year. That was great.
But how about all the business we all wrote and took lower commissions on this past season only to find out the Insurance companies pulled out for the 2010 selling season.
Did they know something the agent did not.
I think if an Insurance company is pulling out in the 2010 season from PFFS plans they should be made to back up and pay us the rest of our commission They should pay us $400.
I hope the $0 premium plans do not end. I also hope the benefits they provide do not lower. There is talk that premiums on PFFS plans will change. I hope a dual product for PFFS comes out because I have about 200 clients on this.
Thank you so much for all the work you did to see that we are paid for the work we did!
Sue
Craig, you are the bomb….as in cherry bomb(LOL) thanks for all your hard work and a very nice July 4th present from the CMS people. We all need to keep a clear head about the future and continue to do the right thing at the right time in all our efforts. As agents the good guys will always outweight the bad guys unfortunately CMS and the public only get the bad stories. NAHU is making an excellant effort to correct…and we will, with your help, be able to make it all right!!!Thanks Again
WHEW!!!!
Thanks, Criag! Job well done! We’re all indebted to you. You helped wake up the “suits.”
After nearly 40 years in this business, nothing surprises me any longer. Imagine this; the mutts as CMS, who feed and get their salaries from us taxpayers, have our commissions held hostage. If CMS has not reversed this decision, there would be an exodus of insurance agents who would participate in MA/MAPD’s in 2010. Insurance companies are NOT our friends. The only reason they pushed back on this subject, it that even though they have little brain matter, they realize that if this initial CMS position was not reversed, they would have few agents going forward in 2010. Never assume intelligence with insurance companies, financial institutions, nor any government agency. CMS held us hostage on this issue; one which we not ever forget. 2010 will be a questing mark for us regarding our sales efforts. Never forget that insurance companies would be delighted to eliminate us agents if they thought it would actually work for them. After all these years in this business, we trust no insurance companies nor them giving us any respect.
Keep drinking the Kool -Aid John in AL
When you have to depend on a government file to get paid, you are screwed
A more important question is how many of you felt like slaves this selling season?
Chris,
We all felt like slaves but if you know what your doing and know how to find clients, the money is great(now that we are geting paid full commission for OM + PDP). It sure beats selling individual major medical, final expense, med supps. The only thing it doesn’t beat is selling Fixed Indexed annuities but those aren’t easy to find.
Chris, how right you are!
I feel very much like a slave. I became an independent agent so I could help who I wanted to help with the plans that were right for them.
Now I am able to help seniors and disabled americans find the right coverage for their needs and that makes me feel great!
But, I am behind in paying my bills due to waiting 7 months for CMS to try and figure out how to pay us correctly. At this point I am not sure they ever will. At least the inusrance companies paid me correctly over the last few years before someone at CMS got the idea that they could actually figure out how to pay us. It is simply shocking to me that CMS has so much power and “oversite” on all we and the insurance companies do, but there is NO “oversite” on them.
What a true waste of tax payer dollars! If someone could go into Medicare & CMS and revamp their administative systems and processes, medicare eligibles files would actually be right and our payments would be right. AND it would save soooooo much money getting it right the first time instead of 2, 3, 4 times.
Not sure I can afford to continue depending on a very broken CMS to make a living any longer. I’ll try to keep helping my current customers and referrals, but I am being forced to move to other products in order to eat and pay my bills.
Since this whole process was a disaster (or a load of crap), how many of you are going to continue to sell MA and MAPD in 2010?
Deffinatly NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Med sups for my clients only!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No way in hell
I think it could be good next year. Think about all the PFFS that’s dropping out and I feel that the bumps in the road have been smoothed out finally. We survived the hard part, why give up now? Nothing but prosperity ahead.
I sell Med supps whenever possible and don’t push advantage plans unless the client really wants to talk about them. I do offer MA plans when that is the most appropriate solution for the client, but I don’t sing their praises like I used to . . . .