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Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period
With fewer than three weeks left in Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period (AEP), agents and advisors have spent the last month enrolling Medicare beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage (MA) and Prescription Drug Plans (PDP) for 2021.
Come Dec. 7 – the date AEP ends – many agents and advisors will take some well-deserved time off to recharge and reconnect with family and friends. But smart agents and advisors know that another important enrollment period starts on Jan. 1: the Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment Period (OEP).
Post-Enrollment Period
It’s a simple step during the AEP process to ask clients the best ways to contact them for follow up. Make a note if they prefer a phone call, email or postal mail. Confirm and document their contact information and respect their decisions. Insurance professionals ensure their clients have the best coverage by keeping the lines of communication open. Developing a follow-up system is the best way for agents and advisors to make sure their client’s plan is working for them.
Agents and advisors also need to follow through with their commitments. Some insurance professionals think the burden is on clients to contact them if there are issues with a plan. Agents and advisors shouldn’t risk losing clients due to poor customer service and lack of follow up.
- Check in with clients to ask if their current plan is filling their needs.
- Did they receive their new plan I.D. card?
- Are there any transition of care problems?
- Do they want to review plan benefits?
OEP, which runs from Jan. 1 to March 31 – is the time when Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in MA plans have the opportunity to make a one-time election to change their coverage. The change will take effect the first of the month after the plan receives the change request.
During OEP, the beneficiary can:
- Switch to another Medicare Advantage Plan (with or without drug coverage).
- Disenroll from the Medicare Advantage Plan and return to Original Medicare. The beneficiary will be able to join a Part D plan.
Agents and advisors need to be keenly aware that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has put in place rigid rules regarding the communications they can have with clients about OEP.
We are in the business of providing exceptional services to agents and advisors. It’s more than products and services. It includes giving you the valuable insights – such as contacting a client to make sure their plan is working for them. And, if necessary, use OEP as the time to help your clients change plans.
Thousands of seniors with Highmark’s Medicare Advantage plans will lose in-network access to UPMC hospitals a year earlier under a Wednesday state Supreme Court decision than they would have under a lower court’s ruling.
“We are disappointed in today’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling,” Highmark spokesman Aaron Billger said in an emailed statement. “While this is not how we interpreted the consent decrees intended to guide the Highmark and UPMC relationship, we will work in full compliance with the ruling and trust UPMC will do the same.”
“UPMC is grateful the Supreme Court expeditiously reached this decision, allowing seniors ample time to make the best choices for their health care,” UPMC spokesman Paul Wood said in an emailed statement.
Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplemental insurance (Medigap) are each intended to enhance the value of traditional Medicare coverage. Understanding how Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplements operate can help agents determine how to structure, market and support these plans. What are the differences between Medicare Advantage and Medigap insurance, and what does each offer its beneficiaries?
CMS will no longer provide “Medigap C and F” plans by 2020, which are plans that cover extra Part B costs
The Better Medicare Alliance, a Washington-based coalition for companies and groups with an interest in the Medicare Advantage has posted a copy of a memo that shows CMS is reinterpreting the phrase “primarily health related” when deciding whether a Medicare Advantage plan can cover a specific benefit.
The Medicare Advantage programs lets insurers offer consumers comprehensive plans that serve as an alternative to traditional Medicare coverage. CMS tries to control current costs, avoid any incentives for patients to get more care, and help patients shop for plans on an apples-to-apples basis by putting tight limits on the benefits the plan issuers can offer.
