Senior Insurance Blog

With the growing popularity of the phone & Internet sales process among senior insurance agents across the country, many are seeking out solutions to enhance the experience for both agents and consumers.  One solution that is being used to great success by many of our top producing agents is screen sharing software. 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with screen sharing software, it is software that you either install on your computer or access through a website that allows you to display whatever is on your Internet-connected computer onto other Internet-connected computers.  Additionally, most screen sharing software also allows you to grant permission for your audience to take control of your computer.  These two functions can also be reversed, so that you can view and control another Internet-connected computer.  Instant messaging, VOIP (talking), video conferencing, and file sharing are other features that may be included with screen sharing software to give you the ultimate communication tool.

If you haven’t yet looked into incorporating screen sharing software into your sales and other business processes, we highly recommend that you do.  Here’s why:

Increased interactivity with clients:  The biggest benefit is the interactivity that screen sharing allows.  No longer does your audience have to just sit and stare at a monitor throughout your whole presentation.  Your clients can actively take control of whatever program or file is on your computer (that you determine) and vice versa.  Your audience’s attention to the presentation will be much greater, and they’ll appreciate the more “in-home feel” without you actually being there.

More dynamic, engaging presentations:  No longer are you confined to just a PowerPoint presentation.  Since you have computer control throughout the entire presentation, you can make your presentations more dynamic by bringing up and showing various files based on the custom needs of the client.  Website, videos, music, and other files can all be presented whenever and however you want in real-time.  Then combine this with the IM, VOIP, and video conferencing features of most screen sharing software, and you have all the tools you need to give a highly engaging presentation.

Better reinforcement of training / education:  If you are experienced with giving more educational presentations, you know the challenge of getting your audience to remember what was actually taught.  A good example of this is getting seniors to remember many of the important points about their policies, or about the Medicare program in general.  Screen sharing isn’t going to solve the problem, but it can help improve the learning experience by allowing you to present periodic reinforcement activities.  Web based questionnaires are a great tool to accomplish this.  With the real-time feedback on their performance you can adapt your presentation accordingly to make it more effective.

Reduction of application errors:   Rework is something I think everyone can agree is bad for both business and our mental health.  With screen sharing you can ensure zero defects on applications as you can walk a client through an application, seeing exactly what they are typing.  The amount of time and money saved by eliminating application errors can be very significant over time, and that is just for the app process.  I’m sure you will find many areas in your business where such technology can eliminate further rework.

Better evaluation of the sales process:  Yet another great benefit of many screen sharing software is that you can record your sessions.  By recording your sessions you can evaluate what went right and what went wrong, and then use that data to improve your future presentations.  And after you record that perfect presentation, you can use that video as a training tool for others in your business, post it to your website to keep visitors longer, or even post it to YouTube and have it show up in the search engines to generate traffic to your site. Of course, always remember to follow HIPPA regulations and other common courtesies when recording, broadcasting, and disseminating information.

“Nobody wants to read your copy.”

This is the cold, hard truth about advertising according to popular copywriter Steven Pressfield, and I believe him.

There is a phenomenon in the advertising industry called “Client’s Disease.” Essentially every client, whether that client is your own organization or an external customer, mistakenly believes that because it cares about the product it’s advertising everyone else will as well.

The harsh reality is that no one cares, and it’s not because they are mean or have a grudge against you or your organization, it’s just that they have better things to do, such as solving their own problems.

Knowing and accepting this fact is half the battle in advertising. The other half is capitalizing on it by communicating to your audience that you can solve those problems. This is the only way to get your audience to even give your ad or website a few seconds of consideration. Though there is no concrete evidence, most experts agree that most people spend about 10-15 seconds to glance over a communications piece before deciding to continue to look into it or reject it. So it’s critical that your copy and other elements are finely tuned for maximum effect.

Here are 10 tips to enhance your copywriting so that your audience gets the message and decides to stick around long enough to buy into what you are selling.

1. Know your audience. More specifically, know what problems they want to solve. Also, know their demographics, interests, political affiliations, and other relevant info that can help you craft your message and gain their attention.

2. Communicate how your product or service solves your audience’s problem. Whether it’s protecting assets through insurance, increasing retirement income through an annuity, or getting the highest commission percentage possible, your audience has a need and it’s your biggest priority to tell them how you can meet it.

3. Explain why you are better than their other options. As an insurance agent or broker, you obviously have to deal with a lot of competition. So right after you tell your audience how you will solve their problem, you need to tell them why you’re their best option. Be very specific with this.

4. Tailor your message to the medium. One piece of copy isn’t going to universally work for all mediums. In fact, you may need a whole new message depending if you are communicating your message through a Google Ad, direct mail, e-Direct, or website.

5. Call them to action. Once you’re done explaining, it’s time to get your audience to respond. Whether it's getting them to call you, landing them on a specific page, or getting them to sign up, you need to tell them what is the first step they can take in solving their problem.

6. Be honest. Though everyone expects some exaggeration or puffery during the sales process, you must be careful to not step over the line into illegal territory that may lead to an expensive suit that can wreck your business.

7. Keep it concise. Keep your message as brief as possible and only focus on the audience and the solution they seek. No one cares about your rags to riches story or how your business has been around since the horse and carriage days.

8. Stay on message. If you are promoting solution X, then don’t get side tracked by also trying to promote solution Y that isn’t relevant to the problem. If you can get them to buy solution X, you’ll have plenty of other opportunities to promote solution Y.

9. Avoid clichés. People can immediately see laziness, especially in writing. If you’re using over-used and tired phrases or wording, such as “Step up to the plate and sign up now!” then your audience will tune you out, and you'll see your credibility diminished.

10. Proofread… and then proofread again.

As you can see, we have implemented both minor and major changes to our site to improve both the design and functionality of our site. We’ve implemented our new logo and color scheme, a new homepage design, added a drop down navigation bar, and most significant of all, we’ve added a new agent resource page that consolidates an array of useful information for you in one spot.

With all the changes to Medicare this year, we’ve created a dedicated Medicare 2010 information page that breaks down everything you need to know in an easy to digest format. We’ve created a tabbed panel for you to easily switch between the different types of information. On this dedicated Medicare 2010 information page you will find a concise overview, a tabled breakdown of all the plans, a list of Frequently Asked Questions provided by Mutual of Omaha, and links to major Medicare websites. We will update this page with any new info that may arise, so we recommend checking this page periodically. Here is a direct link to the page:

http://www.psmbrokerage.com/medicare-supplement-2010

Our resources page features the same tabbed panel structure for clear and easy to access information. On this page you will find a link to the aforementioned dedicated Medicare 2010 information page, a link to our E&O partner, links to helpful technology sites, information on incentives and events, information and links to educational resources, links to major news sites, and a convenient list of carrier contact info. We are always seeking the best resources for our agents; so when we discover them, know that we’ll post that information here first.

http://www.psmbrokerage.com/resources

At PSM, we’re always trying to improve our service to our agents, so we appreciate any feedback you may have on any of the changes we’ve made.

Happy 2010 everyone! As an independent agent, not only do you have personal resolutions to make, but business resolutions as well. To help you come up with some great ideas, we surveyed our top producers and asked them what their resolutions are for 2010. Here are the top five resolutions you need to make for 2010:

Get More Education – We are all constantly bombarded with new government regulations, technology, products, and so forth. In the Information Age, what you don’t know is a significant threat to maximizing your income. Many of our respondents made resolutions to take weekly evening classes. Classes ranged from minimizing tax liabilities to online marketing. Many local community colleges offer affordable classes. Online classes/tutorials are also a good, convenient alternative. One agent suggested the site http://www.lynda.com. This site offers online video tutorials for an array of software and technologies at an affordable price.

Optimize Your Processes - Do you have certain processes that perform well for you? Then squeeze everything you can out of those processes by optimizing them. Many of our respondents said they wanted to improve various business processes that would result in reduced printer usage, less travelling, and fewer rework and mistakes. One agency reported that it will utilize checklists more to reduce mistakes and rework in the contracting process. Recently, NPR reported on the effectiveness of checklists in hospitals. Check out the article here.

Consult More Experts - As much as we would like to think we can do everything ourselves or that we already know everything we need to know about our business, we know that the most successful people and individuals are those that can leverage the knowledge and abilities of a team. Many of our respondents said they would consult with more experts this year rather than try and do it themselves. Accountants, lawyers, bankers, technology experts, and other dedicated professionals can offer very valuable services in a short amount of time. For example, you agency owners will want to find out how much your unemployment insurance expense will increase due to changes in state laws and plan accordingly. Small businesses are projected to face anywhere between a 2.5% – 600% increase in payments (yes, that is six hundred) according to entrepreneur.com.

Measure, Measure, Measure – When you are so busy doing your daily work, it really is difficult to find the time to look back and quantitatively see if what you did really benefited the business. Did you spend thousands of dollars on building a Web site? Have you recouped your investment yet? The same applies when looking forward as well. Conducting a survey of your target market can help you determine if you really need to take on a new product. Many of our respondents vowed to really look at measuring ROI before making significant investments. Want to learn more about measuring ROI? One agent recommended the book How to Measure Anything by Douglas W. Hubbard. It has a 5-star rating on Amazon with 55 total customer reviews.

Improve Sales Presentations - One big issue among our respondents was sales presentations. Many feel they can improve their presentations to close more sales. Many promise to incorporate more imagery into their presentations. Showing too much documentation or talking too much can quickly lose the interest of potential clients. This is especially true when selling products over the phone. As you well know, not having a physical presence makes the sales process that much more difficult. To compensate many agents are integrating their Web sites into their phone sales process to present images and information while making their pitch over the phone. Some agents said they are going to look into video conferencing technologies for those seniors who are more computer savvy. Even if a senior doesn’t have a camera of their own, they can still see your face and get more of that personal feel without having you there in their homes. One good place to start is http://www.megameeting.com.

So what resolutions have you made for your business? We encourage you to share your resolutions and ideas in our comments section.

Many of you are already familiar with referrals: getting existing customers to recommend you to others. The value of referral business is significant as these customers were obtained without expending time and money marketing directly to these customers. Now imagine getting an exponential amount of referrals from sources you never served from places you’ve never heard of. This is the power of Inbound Web Marketing.

Before I get into the strategies, let me give a brief review to those of you who may be unfamiliar with this concept. In the 21st century, marketing can be split into two categories: Outbound and Inbound. Outbound marketing consists of traditional marketing efforts such as telemarketing, tradeshows, direct mail, TV/Radio, print ads, and newer techniques such as E-blasts. These methods require that you interrupt whatever the customer is currently doing with or without their permission. With customers being bombarded by so many ads on TV, radio, Internet, roads, and practically everywhere else they go, they are getting better and better at ignoring such ads. This of course reduces the ROI on your marketing investment.

Inbound marketing consists of search engine optimization, link exchanges, blogging, video and audio podcasting, and social media. The significant difference here is that since customers are actively seeking out your products and services you automatically have their permission to inform them of how great your business, service, and products are. You also have their undivided attention. When a customer is searching for something that is their focus. They will continue to search and be focused until they find the solution they seek. This is something that is so elusive with traditional outbound marketing efforts. As an added bonus, your “broadcast” cost is minimal to nothing.

Here are some inbound web marketing strategies you will want to implement if you haven’t done so already:

1.) Location. Location. Location. The phrase made famous by realtors around the world is equally applicable to the land of the Internet. When I speak about location, I am referring to your ranking on the search engines. Non-paid search result positions 1-5 on any search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing are considered top “real-estate.” Now how to get there is a whole other blog post, but I will say that if your Web site is just starting out, you will want to focus on long-tail keywords that are very specific to your market and are easier to rank for. “Vermont Medicare Quotes” will be a whole lot easier and faster to rank for than “Medicare Supplement.” You may not generate as much traffic, but the leads you do get will be highly qualified.

2.) Get Social. Meet your new friends Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Now, your elderly clients may have no idea what these are, but their children do. Remember, many of the people searching for Medicare and other insurance information tend to be relatives of seniors who are more Web savvy. So make sure you setup accounts on these sites and include them in your traditional marketing materials. And once you’ve set them up make sure you maintain them by linking to different content on your site or getting out important information fast. For example with Twitter you can inform them “GA United of Omaha now Available. Call 1-800-555-5555 for more info” as soon as you find out. Best of all? These tools are free.

3.) Get Partner Links. Nothing is free, but many things don’t have to cost money. Is there an organization in your industry that doesn’t compete directly with you? Partner with them and exchange links. For example, if you only sell Medicare products, you may want to link to an organization you trust that focuses on long-term-care products. The partner of course will link to your site in exchange and you’ll generate referrals from that site.

4.) Speak Up. Who doesn’t like free advice? This is where blogging comes in. The most important thing about a blog is to keep it updated. The vast majority of blogs are abandoned after just a few weeks. So if you want your blog to be a referral tool, you have to maintain it and maintain it well. Anyone can just link to content already created or reword existing articles. Take the time to offer your unique expertise and professional opinion and your customers will keep coming back to learn more and refer your blog to others. Don’t have time to write extensive blogs? Then consider commenting on other blogs and through Internet forums frequented by seniors. Seniors love to talk and read about current events – leverage it.

5.) Broadcast Yourself. Don’t like writing? Make a Web video. Don’t like how you look on video? Make an audio podcast. Just like blogging, you can spread your wealth of knowledge and other information through these other effective mediums. Once you’ve created the content, you may be wondering how exactly to get it out there for everyone to see. Well there is the famous YouTube, but you’ll also want to post your content on these other great sites that can generate organic leads to your site:

Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Flickr
LinkedIn
StumbleUpon
Twitter
YouTube
PRweb

These are just a sample of the thousands of sites where you can post your content. The more places you post – the more potential customers will find you.

With 2009 coming to a close and a brand new year filled with many changes and opportunities just around the corner, it’s a good time to review the strategic objectives of your organization. Is there significant variation between actual performance and your initial baseline? Do any changes need to be made to existing processes? What are realistic 2010 expected values for apps written, leads generated, and retained customers? These are just a sample of questions we all must ask ourselves when evaluating where we’ve been in 2009 and where we want to be in 2010.

That said, it’s also a good time to refer to some great resources for brainstorming new strategies or tweaking existing ones. One great reference that I highly recommend for your holiday reading list is the book The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Those of you with formal marketing education most likely have the laws engrained in memory by now, as the book is a staple of marketing classes at universities. The book is getting long in the tooth (1993), but its laws are timeless. Here are the 22 marketing laws you need to know:

1. It is better to be first than it is to be better.
2. If you can't be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
3. It is better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
4. Marketing is not a battle of products, it's a battle of perceptions.
5. The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect's mind.
6. Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect's mind.
7. The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder.
8. In the long run, every market becomes a two horse race.
9. If you are shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader.
10. Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories.
11. Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time.
12. There is an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand.
13. You have to give up something to get something.
14. For every attribute, there is an opposite, effective attribute.
15. When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.
16. In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results.
17. Unless you write your competitor's plans, you can't predict the future.
18. Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure.
19. Failure is to be expected and accepted.
20. The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.
21. Successful programs are not built on fads, they're built on trends.
22. Without adequate funding, an idea won't get off the ground.

The laws may not easily be understood at first glance, but contemplate on them you'll see their application to your business in time. For those of you interested in learning more, the book provides more details and excellent examples of each law. Keep these laws in mind and 2010 will be that much more fruitful for you and your business.

Weekly Recap:

Mutual of Omaha Companies News:

• 2010 Medicare supplement modernized plans now available. The official release date was December 01, 2009 and applies to new business effective on or after June 1, 2010. Contact your marketer for the approved outlines of coverage and other information.

• United of Omaha Med Supp has approved unisex rates for Texas. This takes effect as of January 1, 2010.

• United of Omaha’s Medicare supplement in Georgia has been approved. This product will release on December 9, 2009.

Health Care House Bill v.s. Senate Bill: NPR has an excellent comparison chart showing the differences on how each addresses key issues. Check it out here.

Medicare.gov Launches Hospital Compare: This tool allows you to find information on how well hospitals care for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures, and results from a survey of patients about the quality of care they received during a recent hospital stay. Click here to view it.

Precision Senior Marketing is proud to announce that it has teamed with SeniorJournal.com to bring you real-time news articles concerning the senior market. SeniorJournal.com is the dominate source of news for senior citizens in the United States, with no other source providing the same volume and quality of daily news concerning seniors and baby boomers. You can find real-time news headlines on the column to the right. Clicking anyone of these headlines will take you to SeniorJournal.com where you can read the full articles – no sign-up required.

Offering real-time news headlines on our blog allows us to provide you with greater value in two ways. First, you get daily headlines regarding your customers, so we encourage you to revisit this blog often. We know that many of your clients view you as advisors, and as such it would benefit your business to know the current issues that are affecting them from politics to health. Such knowledge can provide you with a great ice-breaker when making cold-calls or that one last answer they need before deciding to work with you.

Second, the partnership allows us to focus this weekly blog on bringing you the right business strategies and marketing techniques that will help you grow your business. If there is a certain business topic that you want to know more about (e.g. phone sales techniques), shoot me an e-mail at info@psmbrokerage.com and I’ll be happy to research and report on the topic right here on this blog. Of course I won’t be able to do every suggestion, but I’ll definitely explore subjects that are of concern to the majority of this audience.

We are always striving for continuous improvement, so if you have any other suggestions for this blog, please let us know.

Weekly Recap:

New Senate Bill: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced a health-care reform bill on Wednesday that would extend health insurance to more than 30 million Americans at a cost of $849 billion over 10 years. Mr. Reid claims that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $127 billion over the next 10 years and by over $600 billion in the following decade. Republicans have promised to block the bill by threatening a filibuster. To avoid this, Mr. Reid needs 60 votes (of 100 total) to get the bill to a debate. The vote will be held this Saturday. (source: CNN)

House Cancels Medicare Pay Cuts: The House voted on Thursday to cancel a 21% pay cut for doctors who treat Medicare patients. The bill was passed mostly along party lines with a vote of 243-184. Republicans are furious, alleging that the passage is political quid pro quo for AMA backing the House health care reform bill. Republicans also state that the $210 billion cost of the bill is not offset by other spending cuts or tax increases. With the Senate already rejecting a similar bill, what happens next is anyone’s guess. (source: NPR)

Whether your business has existed for five months or fifty years, organizational brand management is vital to the ongoing growth and success of your organization. Despite its importance, you’d be surprised at the amount of neglect this aspect of business management receives. Great brand management has many benefits including:

• Appear “bigger” than you really are and/or better than the competition
• Increased customer loyalty and referrals
• Increased mind share among potential and existing customers
• Enhanced ability to attract customers of competing organizations
• Easier sales process

On the flip side, poor brand management can be very detrimental to your business:

• You appear incompetent and/or inferior to the competition
• Lose both existing and potential customers
• You are forgotten immediately
• Very difficult or nearly impossible sales process
• No future growth opportunities

Though at first it may not appear that you have much control over what other people think of your organization, there are many factors (conditions or acts) that you can control or at the very least influence to continuously improve your personal or organization brand. Here are five effective methods that we recommend for enhancing your brand.

1. Write a brand management plan: Before you can manage your brand, you need to know what you are managing. Take time to gather your leaders and determine what branding goals you want to accomplish. Some things to think about include “What is our identity?” “What do we want to specialize in?” “Do we want to be seen as an innovator?” Your plan doesn’t have to be an encyclopedia, just enough to get the point across throughout your organization. I like the old saying that says “If it’s not worth writing down, it’s not worth doing.”

2. Go beyond selling: In the process of marketing and selling to as many people as possible, many organizations forget the true value of the selling – improving the situation of the customer. Yes we all have numbers to hit, but that should not come at the expense of the long-term growth of your organization. Improving the situation of the customer not only means bringing them better products, but also providing excellent support of those products, educating your customers on how to further improve their situations, and getting to know their motivations (family, money, security).

3. Don’t brand based on price: O.K., so many of you may think this is ignoring marketplace realities, however hear me out for a second. Basing your brand on price alone is self-defeating primarily because in the race to the bottom, someone will always beat you there. Of course there are cases where you have to revert to the lowest price, just don’t make it a habit. Focus your marketing on your organization’s or product’s advantages, that way when everyone is offering the same “lowest” price, you’ll be the one making the sale and have the opportunity to cross sell on a higher margin product.

4. Under-promise and over-deliver: The fastest way of driving your brand into the dirt is to not follow through on your obligations. Although it is natural to want to actively make your organization appear to be the best by screaming it to the ends of the Earth, this strategy can backfire very quickly if you can’t meet the expectations you have created. Foster excitement among your clients and the market in general by being modest and truthful with what your organization can do and then exceed their expectations by giving them more value or world-class service (within constraints of course).

5.Turn brand problems into brand opportunities: Bad things happen – it’s just a fact of life and business. Rather than hide, minimize, or outright lie about mistakes or problems, the best method is to analyze the situation, determine a solution, and then market how your organization can be better because of it. One famous case is Tylenol. In 1982, seven people died after taking Tylenol pain-relief capsules that had been poisoned by a criminal who has yet to be identified to this day. This incident could have literally put Tylenol out of business; however they proactively addressed the problem leading to the creation of federal anti-tampering laws and reforms of over-the-counter packaging. Tylenol and parent company Johnson & Johnson were praised by the media for its handling of the incident. In seven years Tylenol became the most popular over-the-counter analgesic in the U.S.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the introduction of a combined health care reform bill that has the primary goal to provide health insurance coverage to 96% of all Americans. Though the bill was announced to cost $894 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal and other major news outlets, the real cost of the bill is expected to be more than $1 trillion once all factors are included, such as changes to Medicare. The following is a list of other key objectives included in the bill:

• Insurance for 36 million uninsured Americans will be subsidized
• Health exchanges will be established to make it easier for small groups and individuals to purchase coverage
• Private insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for pre-existing conditions
• Annual out-of-pocket expenses will be capped
• The bill will be financed by increasing the tax liability among the rich ($500,000 individual / $1 million families annual income) and reduced spending for Medicare and Medicaid (1.3% annually)
• Private insurance companies are able to negotiate reimbursement rates with the government
• Individuals are required to have coverage or pay a penalty equivalent of up to 2.5% of their income
• Poor Americans are exempt from this requirement

Debate over this bill (consolidated from several committee bills) is expected to begin next week. If this bill is passed, it would then go on to be consolidated with any legislation passed by the Senate. There is still one key issue dividing Democrats in the House that could stall the bill – the use of federal money to pay for abortions.

Weekly Recap:

Nursing Home Costs Approaching $80K/year: According to a just-released study conducted by MetLife on the costs of long term care, private room nursing home rates rose 3.3% to $79,935 per year or $219 a day, assisted care living rose 3.3% to $3,131 per month, adult day services increased 4.7% to $67/day, and the hourly wage of home health care aides increased 5% to $21 an hour. To read the full survey, click here.

$800 Billion Wasted Each Year in Health Care: According to an independent report by Reuters, $600-$850 billion a year is wasted by the health care industry. The biggest categories of waste identified were administrative inefficiencies, unneeded medical services, and fraud/abuse. Click here for the full article.

Health Reform to Lower Costs for Small Business?: The HHS released a report this week explaining how businesses will see lower premiums if health care reform legislation supported by the White House is passed. It is an interesting read for you small business owners; just remember this isn’t an independent report. You can check out the report here.

Gerber’s Med Supp Now in CA and IL: Gerber Life’s Medicare supplement was released to consumers in CA and IL today. For marketing materials click here.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, CNN, MetLife, Reuters, HHS

As many of you already know, Medicare's Annual Open Enrollment begins November 15 and will last until the end of the year December 31. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week released the final $6.3 million of a total $49.6 million in total funding allocated for State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs).

SHIPs use this money to fund local community programs that provide personalized help to Seniors who want to know more about Medicare and other health insurance information. SHIP programs are expected to focus heavily on less fortunate Seniors who typically have little knowledge of the Medicare system and the benefits they are entitled to. For more information on the SHIPs in your state, click here.

For this open enrollment season many in the industry expect to see an increase in Medicare supplement enrollments due to several changes to Medicare Advantage that will occur in 2010. MA beneficiaries can expect to see an average premium increase of nearly 22% (a $7 increase to $39/month). Despite the increases, CMS states that roughly 87% of Medicare beneficiaries will still have access to a MA plan that doesn’t require a premium. Additionally, CMS expects 7% of MA beneficiaries will have to choose a new health plan or a Medicare supplement as their plans (typically PFFS and low enrollment plans) will be discontinued at the end of this year.

CMS will also increase its oversight of Medicare marketing activities. There are now stronger rules governing the commissions that can be paid to independent sales agents and how MA plans identify themselves. CMS will significantly increase its secret shopping activities, including individual marketing sessions. So we advise that you be extra vigilant in your compliance efforts this season. Mutual of Omaha has already published its disenrollment guidelines, which you can check out here.

As usual, Seniors will have access to www.medicare.gov and 1-800-MEDICARE this season. Of course, these are good resources for agents such as yourself, if only to ensure that your information aligns with the official source. For all open enrollment related information, click here.

As always, we’ll keep you updated with the latest news and product information to help make this open enrollment season a successful one for your organization.

Sources: CMS, Senior Journal