Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified guidance for Medicare Advantage (MA), Cost plan, and Prescription Drug Plan (PDP) enrollment and marketing activities. You have registered for AHIP’s course, “Marketing Medicare Advantage and Part D Prescription Drug Plans: Understanding Medicare Basics, Plan Options, and Marketing and Enrollment Requirements.“ You will need to comply with the revised rules.  We have updated Part 4, slide 33 and Part 5, slide 7 to include the following key changes that affect marketing representative compliance.

Part 4: Promotional Activities: Referral Programs

• A marketing representative may request referrals only from current members of an MA or Part D plan and requests may not be made during an individual marketing appointment.

–        You may request names and addresses, but not phone numbers.  Information can be used only for mail solicitation.

Part 5: Enrollment via telephone:

• Plans may accept incoming calls only from a beneficiary or authorized representative to complete an enrollment request.  A plan representative, agent or broker must not be present.

Please note, these changes are in addition to the extensive changes we brought to your attention in a previous e-mail dated August 19.  CMS and plan sponsors will be overseeing marketing activities to ensure compliance with this and all other new requirements.

To ensure that plans can fulfill their obligation to appropriately train marketing agents, we will track whether you have clicked on the Part 4 and Part 5 weblinks and reviewed the revised slides that contain more complete information on these topics.

If you have not yet taken the exam for the course, you will be expected to know this information when you take the test.  We encourage you to review all slides thoroughly to ensure your readiness for the exam.

If you have any questions, please contact support@ahipinsuranceeducation.org

Whether you are a personal producing agent, a GA, MGA, SGA or FMO, this new product will eliminate your frustration over the appointment process.

Why is it cool?

• Individual producers will have their commission levels set across an entire product line.  This enables us to deliver the maximum commission based on production.  Qualify for higher commissions by meeting our criteria.  No haggling!
• For Agencies and Agent Recruiters, you set the commission level for each agent for each product category.  Your agents will see the correct commission schedules automatically.
• There are 1,500 Company/Product/State variations in the initial launch.  That’s 37 companies covering 12 products in all 50 states plus DC.
• You can filter results to quickly drill down to see what’s available in any state.
• We’ve loaded 7 commission levels:  3 writing agent levels, General Agency, Managing General Agency, Supervising General Agency and Field Marketing Organization.  All 1,500 variations are available for each of the 7 levels.
• When the paperwork is accessed, it is filled with the agent data from our database to save time.

If you are logged into our website, you can view this product by clicking here. Demo coming soon!

If you are not registered for our website, you can register here.

What’s next?  Our pipeline is bursting with products and enhancements.  Look for a preview of our new client/lead management system in the next 7 days!!

For instructions on how to get Certified with Coventry (and other companies), please visit our 2011 Certifying web page.

Bravo has a significant presence in the Philadelphia market and in Texas.  In addition, Bravo offers a number of Special Needs plans which allow members, in many cases, to enroll in their plans year round.

The story is covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Reuters and the Tennessean.com.

• Monday, August 30th;  Aetna’s Individual 2011 Producer Certification Program webinar is open to all agents. 2011 Optima Medicare Broker Certification seminar is open to agents in the Virginia Beach, VA area.  Genworth Senior Supplemental Products; One on One Seminar is being offered to agents in the Williamsport, PA area. 2011 Coventry Product Training seminar is being offered to agents in the Columbus, GA area.
• Tuesday, August 31st;  Ritter 2010 VA Summit in Roanoke is open to any VA agent. Coventry Health Care of Kansas Advantra 2011 Benefit Training seminar is open to any agent in the Overland Park, KS area. Genworth Senior Supplemental Products; One on One Seminar is open to agents in the Harrisburg, PA area. 2011 Coventry Product Training seminar is offered to any agent in the Durham, NC area.
• Wednesday, September 1st;  Ritter 2010 VA Summit in Norfolk/Virginia Beach is open to any VA agent. Coventry Personal Care Training seminar is offered to agents in the Rockford, IL area. Genworth Senior Supplemental Products; One on One Seminar is open to agents in the Bethlehem, PA area.
• Thursday, September 2nd;  Ritter 2010 VA Summit- Richmond is open to any VA agent. Aetna’s Individual 2011 Producer Certification Program webinar is open to all agents. 2011 Optima Medicare Broker Certification seminar is open to agents in the Williamsburg, VA area. Genworth Senior Supplemental Products; One on One Seminar is open to agents in the Philadelphia, PA area. Coventry 2011 Coventry Product Training seminar is open to agents in the Greensboro, NC area.
• Friday, September 3rd;  No trainings are scheduled at this time.

A cornerstone of our online Management System will be our new Lead Management System.  This system will work as the back end for lead management for agents in the Medicareful.com program.  In addition, this system will enable agents to manage their current clients Medicare Options as well as their Leads and Prospects.

In the new management system, you can manage client/lead/prospect data, add timestamped notes, set up a task list, attach a document to a client record, upload new records using a .csv file and mark leads as hot.  We have a number of other features to add to the Lead Management System before we release the final version in October, however, we wanted to give a preview of the amazing progress we’ve made thus far!

Here is a video demonstration of the Lead Management System as it is currently functioning:

The NAIC Loves Agents & Agents Want Piece of Pie

The second most asked question asked of me, by agents, is “Do you see a role for us when the exchanges go into affect?” (the first is “What do I think commissions will be reduced to in the Individual market?”).  Logically, I see a role for agents due to how confused consumers are now. I think that role becomes even more important once consumers try to understand the complex new legislation, which will include coverage requirements, tax credits and state exchanges.  Unfortunately, logic doesn’t necessarily apply with our elected officials, so stay tuned.

• Monday, Aug 23 2010;  Aetna’s Individual 2011 Producer Certification Program webinar is being offered to all agents. Genworth Senior Supplemental Products; One on One Seminar is being offered to agents in the St. Lincoln, NE area.
• Tuesday, Aug 24 2010;  Baltimore Life will be hosting a number of webinars throughout the day that is open to all licensed agents. Their will be discussing the different products Baltimore Life has to offer. Aetna Individual Califorinia plans & Underwriting webinar is being offered to CA agents. Genworth Senior Supplemental Products; One on One Seminar is being offered to agents in the St. Lincoln, NE area and in Lexington, KY.
• Wednesday, Aug 25 2010;  Aetna Advantage Plans for Individuals, Families and the Self-Employed seminar is being offered to agents in the Southfield, MI area. Coventry Health Care of Kansas Advantra 2011 Benefit Training seminar in being offered to agent in the Springfield, MO area. United Healthcare Product Training: Evercare Chronic Special Needs Plans seminar is being offered to agents in the Forth Worth, TX area.
• Thursday, Aug 26 2010;  Aetna Back to Basics: Medicare 101 Seminar is being offered to agent in the Jacksonville, FL area. Aetna’s Individual 2011 Producer Certification Program webinar is being offered t all agents. Coventry Health Care of Kansas Advantra 2011 Benefit Training seminar is being offered to agents in the Rogers, AR area. Molina Options Plus Special Needs Plan, Molina Options MAPD webinar is being offered to agents in CA.
• Friday, Aug 27 2010;  Aetna Free Producer Training Webinar is open to all agents.