Great News for Geisinger Health Plan Agents!
Geisinger Health Plan is one of a small group of Medicare Advantage Plans which has been selected to pilot the CMS-Sponsored Compliance Certification. There are some advantages to the CMS sponsored compliance certification:
- The CMS-Sponsored Compliance Certification is FREE!
- CMS is expecting that ALL Medicare Advantage Organizations recognize their Certification!
- CMS will make this available to ALL Medicare Advantage Organizations in 2011, however, you have the opportunity to preview it by Contracting with Geisinger!
I have instructions on how to begin certifying using Geisinger Health Plan as your sponsor. Please visit our Certification page for Geisinger Health Plan. You can begin the process TODAY!
If you are not already appointed with Geisinger Health Plan to sell their Medicare Advantage Products in Pennsylvania, please visit our Licensing Page and select Geisinger from the drop down menu.
For more information on Geisinger Health Plan, please visit our Company webpage for Geisinger.
I completed the CMS certification as per the instructions noting that Geisinger Health Systems was the Plan Organization and then after passing, I received an email today that Highmark is also using this testing, as you are stating above. I do not see a way to add another organization after the fact. Do you know if we can just fax a copy of the Certificate of Completion to other carriers when we find they accept it and/or do you know of a way to edit the profile in the CMS module to include other plan organizations?
Brenda:
I had the same problem, but I think I might have found a way around it (not 100% sure). Instead of going directly to the training site to log in, go to the REGISTRATION site. There is a link to the right of the CMS logo which says, if you’ve previously registered with us, click here. After you click the link, log into that using your existing ID and Password. Instead of going directly to the training center, you will go back to the registration page (with your info prefilled). Now, hold down the key and click on Geisinger, then Highmark (this should allow you to highlight both) and click submit.
Frankly, I have no idea if this actually triggers the updated information to CMS to forward to Highmark and Geisinger, but it’s seems like it should do that. I don’t have a copy of a user guide, I just found this accidentally while I was poking around the website.
Thanks Craig, I’ll try that. I looked through the users guide that came with my Highmark instructions but couldn’t see anywhere that addressed it except that where they picked the plan organization, it seemed as though they had selected two. I’ll try this today and let you know if I hear anything else on this. Thanks again…
Does this mean that if we complete the Geisinger certifications we wont have to pay the $100 for AHIP and all other MA org’s will have to recognize it?
The exact quote from CMS is: “We understand that agents and brokers that sell for a particular MAO or PDP sponsor – including those plans selected for participation in the pilot – often sell Medicare products for other MAOs or PDP sponsors. For that reason, it is our expectation that the agent and broker testing and certification provided through our pilot program will be recognized by MAOs and PDP sponsors not participating in the pilot.”
You can view the CMS document here (the quote I pulled is on page 2): http://blog.ritterim.com/2009/06/26/cms-announces-pilot-of-broker-medicare-advantage-and-pdp-certification-portal-to-be-released-in-july-of-2009/
What other companies are offering the CMS compliant certification FREE. Please let me know.
Thanks
Jesse:
Only other one I’m aware of is Highmark. I’ll check with CMS and see if there is a list I can provide you.
Craig